


Hope's Peak Dojo

by Vampirtulpe



Category: Dangan Ronpa, Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Abusive Parents, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Drama, F/M, Fighting, Humour, Hurt / Comfort, M/M, Manipulation, Multi, Nonbinary Fujisaki Chihiro, Other, Other tags to be added, Possession, Souls, Swearing, Violence, but also lots of fluff, it makes more sense if you read it, of any kind, powers, travelling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-07-16 03:03:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 48,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16077020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vampirtulpe/pseuds/Vampirtulpe
Summary: In a world where everyone is defined by the powers they have, their very soul, Kyiotaka Ishimaru, someone who has yet to find his powers, decides to open a dojo to train with people with similar problems like him. But this is far from easy, since soulless humans are the prey from nearly everyone, which is the reason they need to become stronger. But Ishimaru is not afraid, the world could end before him, but he won't go down without a fight. And so won't his friends.





	1. Hope's Peak Dojo

**Author's Note:**

> Heya everyone! I hope you enjoy this au I have come up with. it may be a bit confusing at first, but everything will be explained sooner or later, so I suggest you occasionally go check. Maybe I will upload a chapter once every week, we will see. I would appreciate comments to keep me motivated and to quickly write more updates. Enjoy it! ^^

“What’re ya doing there anyway Hanamura?”

The short and plump chef was turning around, a mischievous expression on his chubby face as he responded:

“Now now, Mondo. How many times did I tell you that you are allowed to call me Teruteru? We are all friends here are we not? That’s why you allowed me to call you Mondo.”

The strong man squinted critically at Teruteru, his mouth a thin line as he deadpanned: “I never allowed you to call me Mondo.”

Teruteru only chuckled, a little whistling from the kettle he was hovering over indicating that the tea was finally finished. He lifted it and carefully went over to Mondo, where he filled their bamboo-cups with some of his rather infamous green tea, so they could finally chat in piece, without the chef running around all the time to make sure everything was prepared. He was already finished with lunch, so all he needed to do was wait for the master and one of the trainee’s to finish their training.

“Does it really matter now, Mondo? Would you really prefer me to call you Oowada? We lived here together for quite some time now, do you think we are still not far enough to finally reach the first-name basis? Not even a nick-name I have gotten from you, which, quite frankly, is very hurtful. What did I ever do to you to deserve such distance?”

Mondo could only stare at the small chef for a moment, before grabbing his cup and blowing a bit to cool the hot liquid down, after that finally taking a sip, allowing the taste to dominate his senses for a moment and to fill his body with a certain kind of piece. He sighed and flicked a strand of unruly hair out of his eyes, responding:

“Don’t get your hopes up. I still won’t be your fuckbuddy, you pervert. But I guess you have proved that your intentions are a bit…. purer than just looking at hot chicks.”

Teruteru chuckled once again, taking a long sip of his own tea, his chuckling slowly evolving into hearty laughter as he admitted: “Not just girls. Guys are just as beautiful. Girls, guys, in between, nothing at all, everyone is just so beautiful. I have barely enough love to give to all of you.” A slight brush adorned his chubby cheeks, his small eyes crinkling from the bright smile on his face before he pulled his favourite comb out of his pocket and began to absentmindedly comb his silky brown hair that was currently styled into a pompadour. Not as impressive and straight as Mondo’s, it was actually quite unruly, but perfect to comb through, so it was a good distraction for Teruteru. He always combed his hair when he felt a bit too nervous or was just in thought. It was good to cope with things.

“And I just can’t help myself, each and everyone of you is simply beautiful. I sometimes feel like I don’t appreciate you enough. But tell me: Did I ever do anything to upset you?”

Mondo thought about the words for a moment, before finally shaking his head with a sigh. It was true, Teruteru made them all compliments and was sometimes a little bit too close, but apart from the invading of personal space, he never touched any of them or raided their rooms or anything. In that regard Teruteru seemed to be rather harmless. But Mondo preferred to stay on guard.

Teruteru smiled at Mondo’s silent headshaking, feeling a little sense of triumph course through him, but he wasn’t able to respond, since in that moment the doors to the kitchen slowly opened and another small person stepped inside. They were bigger than teruteru, with light-brown hair, a bit longer than to the chin and lovely brown eyes. They smiled brightly when they saw who was already in the kitchen and greeted them in a timid voice:

“Ah! Mondo! Teruteru! Good Midday. I hope your morning training went well!”

Mondo grinned and waved Chihiro Fujisaki, another trainee at the dojo, over to them, patting the seat next to him while Teruteru already got up to retrieve more bamboo-cups, in case not only Chihiro decided to finally appear in the kitchen to eat lunch. However, the small one seemed to be the only one, but they quickly hurried over to their friends and took a seat, taking the cup of tea gratefully and immediatly taking a sip, smiling at the relaxing taste.

“Thank you.”

Teruteru had his usual charming smile on his face as he responded: “Oh, it is of absolutely no problem. I love cooking for all of you. You are all training so hard, so it makes sense that I do just the same.”

Mondo allowed his thoughts to wander, thinking about Teruteru’s words. It was true. All of them were training hard, for different goals, but they were working together so everyone could achieve what they were aiming for. In this world, you weren’t strong when you were particularly muscular or able to accept your own secrets or weaknesses, you were strong when you were in touch with your spirit animal. Even though it was more known as the embodiment of your very own soul. Every human on this world has a spirit animal, which everyone calls soul. Yes, just like every human has a soul, everyone has a spirit animal. And if you were able to use the powers of your soul… then you were acknowledged as strong. Your soul can give you very different but very useful powers and if you were strong enough… then your soul would show, you could even change your appearance and become your spirit animal. It wasn’t always a real animal, sometimes it were different versions of said animal, sometimes even a dragon was the form of your soul. The size was also different from every person. Mondo remembered very clearly two people, both in touch with their souls. A gigantic butterfly and a rather small bear. It was interesting.

Mondo was in touch with his soul, but only because his and the soul of his now dead brother Daiya merged when he died. Both their souls were wolf-creatures, but now they were something completely new, a different kind of wolf. But Mondo still feels that Daiya is with him, until this day. He can feel both their hearts beating in unison, their souls are working together for one goal. Mondo still blames himself for Daiyas death, but it would be so much harder without feeling the presence of his dead brother always. He was with him, and he was supporting him during fights and training. That made it easier for Mondo to bare. But since their souls were merged, Mondo could turn into a creature if his emotions were overflowing, most of the time with rage, and he has very sensitive hearing and smelling. He was also stronger than the average person, but that wasn’t only thanks to his soul, it was also because of his hard training.

It was almost sad, but Mondo was currently the only one who was completely in touch with his soul. Chihiro was able to transform, at least they would be, but they are currently too weak for the whole transformation, which is the reason it always failed up to this point, and the reason they joined the dojo, to become stronger, to finally transform, to fight with all their might, to finally be the person they want to be.

Teruteru was able to use certain abilities of his soul, but he never got to see it so far. It wasn’t too tragic for him though, since fighting wasn’t his main goal. He just wants to become a very good cook. He doesn’t have it easy though, even most cooks in the world use their soul’s to make the meals even better. Teruteru hasn’t discovered an ability that can do that, but he already swore to not use his soul when it comes to cooking. He considers it cheating. He also said that it may sound stupid, but cooking comes from the heart, not the soul, which he was right, this DOES sound very stupid, but Mondo knew what Teruteru was talking about. And he understood. And he could appreciate the willpower to actually get better on their own, instead of merely working towards perfectioning their soul to become the strongest. It was something Mondo still had to achieve. He had a strong soul, but he himself was weak. That’s why he was here to train. Well, that and…

“GOOD TO SEE EVERYONE OF YOU ALREADY GATHERED HERE! LET’S EAT LUNCH THEN!”

And him. Kiyotaka Ishimaru, also known as the master and founder of this dojo. He himself was to this day unable to activate any powers of his soul, he couldn’t even catch a glimpse of any power or form within him, everyone, even his family and himself, are convinced that he is the only person int he world without a spirit animal, without a soul, without a purpose. Taka believed it for the longest time and went through the world, depressed, unable to help like he wanted to. Until he got the idea to build this dojo, to train, to help people with similar problems. But the story of how Taka travelled through the world, met Mondo and finally decided to build the Hope’s Peak Dojo…. this was a story for another time.

Chihiro waved excitedly and exclaimed happily: “I’m so glad you are finally here Taka! How did training go? And how is Leon?”

Right behind the black-haired master, another boy with wild red hair and grey eyes appeared. He was currently sweaty but grinned in excitement, his sharper than normal teeth visible as he exclaimed:

“I’m great, thank ya for asking Chi! Training was intense today, he was giving me a hard time!” He put an arm around Ishimaru and the two laughed loudly, apparently very pleased with their training session.

Leon, similar to Taka, was so far never able to use any powers from his soul. But Leon was convinced he would be able to use his powers one day and be a recognized fighter. The funny thing was, that he had fun training and fighting, but he never planned to become famous with his fighting. He usually attendet tournaments for fun or extra-training. He had other plans for his future. He said fighting was a bit too mainstream for him to be his future, he always felt more unique than other people, it made sense he would feel this way. But even though Leon was more on the mischievous side, Mondo was glad he was here. He is a good addition to the dojo, a friendly, even if sometimes kinda loud, guy, motivated to get better and always up to hijinks. It was nice having him around, even though Mondo felt sometimes the urge to rip his head off and set it back on his neck the wrong way. …He was still glad Leon was here. Said redhead was currently sprinting towards their current place before jumping right next to Mondo and sitting down in a relaxed fashion, leaning heavily on Mondo and panting slightly, sweat still streaming down his forehead. The training session with Taka must have been pretty intense today.

Speaking of Taka, he was currently walking towards them, gratefully accepting the towel Teruteru offered him and wiping the sweat off his face and upper body. He was currently only wearing grey pants for training, but he quickly threw a white whirt over to cover his well-trained body. Leon did the same, just with a black shirt, before both of them finally relaxed into their seats. 

“Did anything… show during the training?” Chihiro asked, immediatly curious since the two were currently the only ones in the dojo who’s souls haven’t shown themselves in some form yet.

But Leon immediatly shattered these thoughts with a quick shake of his head and a confirmation: “Nothing. We trained the whole morning but no power of any kind showed up.”

“O-oh…” Chihiro tried not to show that they were a bit disappointed, because they couldn’t help but think that Leon and Taka were both just so strong. They couldn’t understand why the powers of their souls weren’t showing. What was holding them back? What was sealing their powers away?

Taka laughed heartily and took his cup, downing it in practically one gulp as he exclaimed: “That’s okay though! It was still a fantastic training! I feel completely accomplished and feel like I truly deserve this break!”

Mondo couldn’t help but smile at that. Taka was very determined to become stronger. He knew very well what his kiyoudai went through. He was actually the only one in this dojo that knows about Taka’s past and both of them were intending to keep it that way.

Leon grinned at Taka’s statement and agreed: “Yeah, it was super tiring! But great!”

Both of them laughed loudly and high-fived across the table, causing Teruteru to frown lightly as he whined: “Could you maybe, by any chance, NOT bond over the table?! You’re sweating on the food!” He smiled though, so it was obvious that he wasn’t actually angry and probably even quite happy that the two of them got along so well. Mondo remembered very clearly when Leon joined the Dojo with a certain disregard for the rules and…. basicall everything Taka was standing for. It was still somewhat like that, but it got significantly better when Taka defeated Leon in a fair fight. He would never forget this story, it was truly unforgettable. And what a fight it was. And now these two trained nearly every day together, they were equals on certain parts. It may not look like it, but Taka was equals with nearly all of them. He was even able to defeat Mondo in battles, something that still baffled the tall male.

Taka was of average height, maybe a bit smaller than the usual man in his age, and his body was lean but well trained. No one would expect this person with the spiky raven-black hair and the burning red eyes to beat the big burly fighter. Of course, Taka had nearly no chance when Mondo used the power of his soul, but the smaller male kept insisting on training with Mondo while using the powers, because he wants to find a way to finally defeat him. Mondo admired this fighting spirit. Instead of just accepting that he was strong, since he could defeat all of them in a fair battle, he really wanted to grow over himself and battle opponents he knew are stronger than him. He just isn’t ready to accept it. He would look death itself in the eye and tell it to eff off. Taka was just that kind of person. A stubborn son of a bitch who refused to vanish, even though the world really wanted to see him gone.

Mondo remembered the day they met the first time very clearly. The poor bastard was famished and frozen and weak. He looked like a walking corpse. A frightened walking corpse, his eyes were as round as plates and he was continuously scooting away from the taller male, like he would murder him on the spot if Mondo got too close. It was a heartbreaking sight he still remembers very clearly, but when he looks at how far Taka had come… He was proud. So incredible proud. And he wanted to see Taka become even stronger. He wanted him to finally find his soul and show all these doubters that his kyiouda is the strongest person there is. Next to Mondo of course.

It was Taka’s voice that startled Mondo out of his thoughts and he quickly focused on his bro as he exclaimed excitedly: “Will we train together after lunch kyioudai?! Just because you are the only one who can fully control his soul, it doesn’t mean that you can slack off or I will beat you in next to no time!” 

Mondo bared his slightly sharper canines and puffed his chest in some sense of superiority as he exclaimed: “Fat chance, bro! I will stomp you into the ground like always!” It wasn’t even like Mondo was ‘stomping’ Taka. It was always very close. Of course, Mondo always held back with the powers of his soul, he didn’t want to seriously injure the smaller male, but Taka really brought all of his powers out of him. That’s why his bro was his favourite training-partner. He took every fight serious, even if it was just training.

Taka grinned brightly, practically jumping on his seat, causing Teruteru who was sitting next to him to flinch, even though he did eye the way the males muscles moved under his clothes. He was going to kick the chef’s ass for that… later.

“Alright! Let’s go Kyioudai, I’M PUMPED!”

Mondo’s eyes widened and he quickly reached across the table to get his bro to sit back down, hastily saying: “Eat your lunch first! Jeez, we have the whole afternoon ahead of us, we have enough time for training!”

And eating Taka did. Both Leon and Taka practically scorfed the food down, as if it would just disappear if their didn’t hurry up. But they did train a lot this morning, so they deserve it. Mondo also ate a fair amount of the food, he had a lot of muscles to keep trained, so he needed to eat a lot. Chihiro on the other hand always ate a small portion, their body just wasn’t particularly strong or trained, causing them to not be particularly hungry. They still greatly appreciate Teruteru’s food however and are very grateful that the chef joined the dojo. As okay as Mondo’s cooking was, Taka was terrible and Chihiro had no idea how to do it, so they were glad that finally someone who actually knows what he is doing is now in the kitchen and cooks food for them every day.

It took some time before the dojo finally took on form, but now, that it happened, Mondo was glad that he found a new home. He used to be a stray, just walking around and causing trouble, betting money over fights so he could buy himself some meals. It was much better like this. Less stressful but just as rewarding.

The food was quickly eaten, Taka and Leon eating by far the most, but as soon as nothing was left, Teruteru was satisfied and dismissed the others, claiming he would just take the dishes to the sink before joining them, because he wouldn’t want to miss the fight that was soon to happen. The chef was always very excited to see people fight for some reason, maybe it gave him some kind of thrill or something, no one was particularly sure, but they just let him be as long as he wasn’t making anyone particularly uncomfortable. Being uncomfortable was basically a main-emotion around Teruteru, but as soon as it didn’t overstep a certain line, then the others were fine with it.

Mondo quickly warmed himself up with some exercises while Taka stretched his body to make sure he was still ready for another training-session. Mondo could with his keen hearing very clearly sense that some joints in Taka’s spinned cracked rather loudly, but he didn’t comment on it. Both of them were very pumped up for this fight.

Leon and Chihiro sat down at one of the walls of the dojo, a place that protected them from the aggresively shining sun, so they could relax a bit while watching the training unfold in front of them. Teruteru joined them after a few minutes, using the powers of his soul to freeze the ground he was walking on and allowing him to smoothly ice-skate over to them, asking excitedly: “Here I am. Did you miss my cool attitude? What did I miss? They haven’t started yet, right?”

Chihiro patted the spot next to them, not looking away as they stated: “You’re just in time. I think they want to start very soon! Come on, make yourself comfortable.”

The chef did as he was told and leaned back against the wall, squinting slightly as a smirk graced his chubby face. Taka and Mondo were facing each other, determined looks on their face as they mentally prepared for the battle to begin. The chef looked towards the gong that needed to be banged before every fight began, quickly announcing: “I will be the judge of this fight.” Before getting up again and walking closer to the scene, looking at both of the contestants before announcing the rules they were using:

“This is merely a battle to test your current fighting-levels and not at all to hurt the other. If one of you gets seriously injured, than I declare the fight for invalid and no one will be the winner. It is allowed to use the powers of your soul, therefore there will be no punishment if one of you decides to use the powers. No one is to leave the circle, or in this case the square, that is the dojo, for this is the current fighting-circle and leaving it will result in your immediate loss! If everyone understands everything, then the fight will begin in three, two, one…”

The chef banged the gong with a violent swing, and with that, the fight finally began. And Mondo dashed forward towards Taka, knowing full well the smaller male won’t make the first move. Taka had a passive fighting style. He knows he isn’t as strong as Mondo, which means he has to let Mondo make the first move, so he can dodge or counter the attack. He also knew that Mondo didn’t have the patience to wait for Taka to finish his calculations, so he just charged forward to finally start with it. The reeled back, still sprinting, ready to punch Taka in his face, only for the smaller male to duck underneath his fist and land an effective uppercut into Mondo’s guts, causing him to cough and shake slightly so he wouldn’t just fall to the ground. It was a good thing he already expected that, because now Taka‘s stance was wide, his leg’s far apart, and not in the practical way, because he took a large step forward to reach Mondo and was now unable to jump aside easily. So Mondo grabbed him by the shirt he was still wearing and threw him onto the stone ground, hovering over him and placing his boot on Taka’s chest, effectively pinning him down.

Mondo smirked down at the struggling Taka and commented: “Weak bro. Did you even try?”

Taka growled somethind under his breath before he craned his neck and bit into Mondo’s leg, whose eyes widened but otherwise didn’t move because the smaller male didn’t get him too hard, it was probably more uncomfortable for Taka than for Mondo. But apparently, this was just a distraction, because Mondo’s muscles loosened when Taka bit him because he subconciously thought this was the best he could do, before he managed to roll to the side and immediatly jumped up to get away from Mondo, causing him to quickly run up behind him and jump onto his back, slinging his legs around Mondo’s stomach and locking them so he couldn’t be thrown off that easily. And the fact that Taka was currently gripping Mondo’s hair and yanking it didn’t make this any more pleasant. It wasn’t painful enough to be uncomfortable, but Taka was basically an octopus. It was hard to throw him off once he was on someone’s back.

“GET OFF!” Yelled Mondo as he tried to throw the smaller male off his back, stumbling around while trying to get a good grip on him. When he finally suceeded, he threw the poor man harshly on the ground, but Taka quickly made a flip in the air to land on his feet, immediatly running towards Mondo to punch. The bigger male reacted fast and reeled back himself to counter with a punch, causing their fists to meet and the bystanders to feel a wave of pressure course through them at the sheer power they were witnessing.

Unfortunately for Taka, Mondo was stronger, causing the black-haired male to fly backwards into a wall, slowly sliding it down, his eyes closed as he tried to recover from the heavy impact. Leaving Mondo enough time to use his powers. He growled lowly, before finally howling, his hands being surrounded by purple energy that began to form the claws of a beast. His amethyst eyes were glowing, he was ready to fight. When he used his powers, he saw things differently.

There were different kinds of souls, some of them with the powers of the elements, but there were also rarer ones, with powers beyond comprehension. Some of them are psychic, some can heal wounds, and in Mondo’s case, he could sense aura’s of another person and use his own aura to fight. Mondo’s aura was purple, a deep purple with lavender aspects, a sign of Daiya. Chihiros Aura was green for example. Calming, quiet, with good intentions. Teruteru’s and Leon’s auras were both red, a sign of passion, determination… sometimes even wrath and the tendency to overstep boundaries, but also a sign of fear.

He completely focused on Taka and his Aura, he could see the movements the smaller male would make. His aura was giving him away. He observed very clearly how Taka was waiting. He played the scene in his head, saw a purple version of himself, his aura, running at Taka, only for the smaller male to snap his red eyes open and kick out, hitting Mondo square in the chest and causing him to stumble back, leaving him open for attacks. So that was his plan? That was surprisingly shallow for Taka’s standards, but he could work with that.

Mondo let out a blood chilling howl and sprinted towards Taka, who was still waiting, eyes closed, no words coming out of his mouth. He listened intently to how close Mondo was, ready to counterattack, like always. But this time, Mondo was prepared. And the moment he saw how Taka snapped his eyes open, Mondo quickly dodged to the side, effectively dodging the set of boots the smaller male was kicking out with. And that meant that now Taka was open for all kinds of attacks. Mondo bared his teeth and dashed forward, but even for that Taka had a plan. He twisted himself so that he practically rolled out of the hole, now crouching on the ground before jumping at Mondo with a yell, grabbing the fist Mondo wanted to punch him with and yanking himself up, so that he was now crouching on Mondo’s arm, staring down at the surprised male with almost shining red eyes.

Before Mondo had any chance to react, Taka lashed out and managed to finally hit Mondo, his fist connecting with his nose and causing the stronger male to howl in anger, losing for a moment the control over his power as his whole body got surrounded by his aura, provoking Taka to yelp in surprise as the aura, in form of some kind of werewolf, was grabbing him. He could see Mondo in the aura, but the purple wolf was so prominent that the actual person was merely a black silhouette, the only thing still clearly visible being the glowing eyes. Taka was struggling helplessly but he couldn’t get out of this. You can’t hurt aura, only the person the aura belongs to, and Mondo was currently untouchable by anyone. There had to be a weak spot somewhere! But this situation also confused the male. He had seen Mondo like this, yes. But only in situations of intense emotional outbursts of either anger or anxiety. Why did it happen now?!

Teruteru’s eyes widened as he already readied himself to go over there to do something. So far Mondo didn’t violate the rules, so he wasn’t allowed to end the battle, but he was also incredibly concerned for Taka’s health. As strong as Mondo was, he sometimes couldn’t control his powers. He lived a long life where he just allowed his powers to take him over, to show no mercy, so it was now hard for him to not get consumed by his own power. And the chef was now concerned that Mondo would hurt Taka, which wouldn’t be the first time it happens, but it would still be extremely upsetting.

Taka was meanwhile staring at Mondo in shock. The aura-wolf had grabbed his arms and yanked him up, his feet weren’t touching the floor and he couldn’t move his arms. And kicking out probably wouldn’t work either. So he tried to calm Mondo down to prevent any major injuries, considering that it was just a practice fight: “Kyoudai, wait!”

But this just seemed to provoke the wold only further as it snarled angrily and threw Taka on the ground before jumping at him and slashing at him. Taka’s shirt ripped and blood spilled, as red as his eyes, which were widening by the second.

And this was Teruteru’s signal to interfere, yelling: “STOP THE FIGHT!” And to immediatly ice-skate towards the two fighters, since it was quicker than running. He focused on Taka and build from the distance a protecting ice-bubble, so the wolf and Mondo would stay out and Taka wouldn’t get hurt any more. Teruteru stopped in front of Taka’s iceball, his arms spread as he stared at Mondo. “This fight is invalid, retreat your soul immediatly and help us take care of Kyiotaka!”

The wolf didn’t look at all happy with this and lashed out at Teruteru, the chef not having enough time to protect himself, and flying multiple feet through the air before crashing into a wall, much similar to Taka just a few minutes ago. Teruteru yelped loudly and a trickle of blood came out of his mouth but he completely focused on keeping the iceball around Taka complete, resulting in the chef ungracefully falling onto the ground and not getting up. His white uniform was now dirty and slightly bloody from some cuts and bruises he got from the attack and old ones that reopened from a fight.

“TERU!” Yelled Leon as he, too, got up and sprinted towards the wolf and Mondo, tackling him to the ground to buy Chihiro a bit more time. They were lucky that Chihiro’s soul had the power of electricity on their side and were therefore able to chase the wolf away.

The wolf yelped loudly as it was tackled to the ground and shocked from afar by Chihiro, resulting in it only lasting a minute or so before it retreated back inside of Mondo and the stronger male being in charge of his own body again.

The moment the wolf was gone, Chihiro breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed, their glowing eyes calming down again since their powers weren’t needed anymore. But they immediatly hurried to Teruteru to make sure that he was okay. They knelt down next to the chef and took his hand, checking for a steady pulse, which was present, thank god. It didn’t look too serious, not as serious as Taka at least, but the chef was still in need of medical attention. Teruteru looked at Chihiro for a moment and smiled sweetly as he said: “I always dreamed of dying in your arms, your beautiful face the last thing I willl see.” Before he lost conciousness, something that concerned Chihiro so greatly that they even ignored the comment the chef just made.

With Teruteru’s conciousness gone, the protecting ice around Taka also melted away, revealing the bad shape the dojo-master was in. Three deep slashed across his chest, his nose most likely broken and blood flowing freely out of it, his shirt completely ripped and his upper body badly bruised and slashed, blood flowing out of all the deeper cuts, including the ones on his chest that cause Taka’s breathing to be ragged and raspy. He needs those cuts bandaged up, immediatly.

The moment Mondo saw Leon pinning him down and his bro lying there bruised and battered, the strong male knew what had happened. And he was freaking out. “KYOUDAI! LET ME GO!” He was struggling against Leon’s grip and the redhead reluctantly let him go, knowing the wolf wasn’t there anymore to take control. Leon’s gaze was serious as he barked:

“You take Taka! Chi and me will help Teru!”

Mondo nodded and leapt over to his bro, looking at his broken form with nearly unfathomable guilt, gently scooping him up and clutching him close to his chest, biting his lip to supress any sounds before sprinting to the door that led inside the building where everyone’s rooms were. Since currently everyone in this Dojo was born as a male they all lived basically next to each other, so when someone was hurt they all sprinted to the same floor. It just made sense for them.

Mondo slid the door to Taka’s room aside and strode into the perfectly cleaned room, gently placing his bro on the comfortable bed so he could finally rest, before heading out again to get antiseptic and bandages. He felt terrible. Sure, it wasn’t the first time something like this happened, but he couldn’t explain himself what ticked him off to the degree that he once again lost control over his powers. And that after he grew so much since the last time… He wondered if he would ever be able to actually control himself while he returned back into the clean room to take care of his bro, carefully cleaning the cuts of any dirt to prevent infections. He wished they had someone with a healing soul in the dojo, it would make these situations much easier, but they didn’t have as much luck. Ironically, the best at treating injuries were Teruteru and Ishimaru, and since both of them were currently unconcious, they had to use Chihiro‘s okay and Mondo’s supbar medical skills. The bandages were on pretty tightly though and he even got Chihiro so they could make sure that they weren’t on too tightly, which was a relief for Mondo that this wasn’t the case. Now all they could do was wait. Wait for Taka and Teruteru to wake up again, so he could apologize, as much as he hated to do just that, it was kinda necessary after he hurt both of them.

Mondo looked at Taka’s unconcious form, the only movement being the steady rises and falling of his chest as he was taking deep breaths, recovering from what just happened. Taka was recovering, he didn’t seem to be in pain, and yet… Mondo couldn’t help but remember the first time he met Taka. And unbeknownst to the stronger male… Taka also remembered very clearly in that moment.


	2. A Tragic Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im currently making huge progress with the writing of this fic, so you guys get the next chapter early. Yay ^^ I hope you guys like it, feedback and comments are always greatly appreciated! See ya in the next chapter! ^^

He was never well liked by anyone. One of the reasons was his grandfather, who brought great shame upon his family and made it impossible for Kyiotaka Ishimaru to live a normal life. He was marked with a mark of shame ad there was no way for him to get rid of it. He would always be an Ishimaru, that was a fact. He learned to cope with it. He didn’t interact much with anyone, he practically avoided them as soon as he realized that many of these children already had slight control over their soul’s and used them to hurt him, since children were cruel creatures. His parents didn’t care about him getting hurt. He was afraid of school, he didn‘t want to go back to this place, he didn’t want to get hurt again, the frustration and the fear was too much to bare.

It wasn’t rare that the child was praying to the moonlight iluminating the night, wishing for his soul to finally appear to him, to make his pain go away, to protect him, to take him away. But his soul never appeared, it never showed itself and the young Ishimaru began to lose hope, just like his parents. No matter how much he trained with tutors to gather his power, nothing would happen, no matter how long and much the training went on. He couldn’t escape because he wasn’t able to activate his abilities and he couldn’t help but wonder if he even had a soul. Soulless people existed, but it was a sad existence. These people were usually consumed by their own bitterness and frustration, most serial killers were soulless people who killed people with powers to try and absorb them, but they were never successful. Taka didn’t want to end up like this… but he felt like he had no other choice… Year after year was just more and more depression, but he couldn’t stop but try, he tried so much, he trained every day with his tutors, he went to school, even though people hurt him there, but he couldn’t stop trying.

Until one day, August 31st, his 14th birthday… The day where everything would change. Not only would he lose all of his motivation to even get up…. it was also the day his parents rendered him unworthy of the task to restore the name Ishimaru… He was unworthy… because he was soulless… Because he wasn’t worth the effort… he was worthless… unworthy… It was the day he lost his home. He was force to leave, his parents didn’t see any sense in keeping him at home… they didn’t keep unworthy strangers in their home. He couldn’t do it. So he ran. He had to run or his parents would hurt him. It was dark and raining when we ran down the uneven street, the splinters piercing his bare feet not bothering him, the salt of his tears mixing with the rain as he tried to get away from everyone, from everything, but he felt like he was running in circles. Everything looked the same. He wanted to get away, but he felt like he made no progress. Was he stuck? Stuck to run forever? To run away from his past, only to realize that he would never outrun his memories? 

He eventually managed to leave his town, immediatly collapsing in the dirt of the nearby forest, rolling into a tight ball, the pain too much to bear. His feet were bleeding, cuts from his school have reopened, his hair was filthy and greasy, just like his clothes, what was he supposed to do. He lost everything. He had no family, no roof, no food. He ran his hands through the mud, tried to punch it away from him, he wanted to get out of this dirt, he wanted into the land he always read about in his books, the land where the sun was made of gold and everyone had a purpose. He wanted a purpose… he wanted someone to be there for him… he couldn’t be lonely anymore. He wasn’t alone his whole life, but he still felt so alone… he couldn’t be alone anymore. He needed to find this land.

This sealed his fate. When he woke up the next day he was frozen to the core, the mud he was lying in stained with his blood. How ironic, for mud to be stained. He tried to pull the thorns and splinters in his feet out, but this was far from an easy task since he couldn’t even see the hurting parasites. He yelped and cried a lot but it gave a lot of relieve at the same time. He wiggled with his toes when he thought he got everything and then made the shaky attempt to stand up, wincing since his wounds were still open, but it was the best that he could do. He had to keep moving. He was scared someone he knew would find him. He couldn’t stand the humiliation, the loneliness, he was just 14, how did he deserve this, how did he deserve to be an Ishimaru, to be hated by everyone. Why was his destiny to be hated? Why was the only thing he was good for to feel pain for everyone else? He didn’t want to feel pain anymore.

He met 2 soulless people on the way, and that in the small forest alone. They seemed shock that such a young person discovered they were soulless, but they quickly calmed down and offered Ishimaru to stay with them. However, he declines, he was scared of the people with long filthy hair and wild eyes, giant animals behind them, sucking the humanity from them. Soulless people were often found by so-called ‘Raiders’, creatures that looked like soul-creatures but weren’t part of humans. They looked for soulless humans and offered them to merge so they could be a complete human, but this succeeds only rarely. Most of the time are the raiders not ready to become completely one with the human and only end up sucking the humanity out of the soulless people, until nothing but flesh was left. And the raiders didn’t make any progress either, since raiders aren’t able to keep humanity inside of them. Raiders can never become humans without a soulless person. Most of them didn’t even want to become humans. They just trick desperate soulless people so they have a meal to feast upon. That’s why Ishimaru was scared of soulless people with their raiders behind them. That’s why he never got close to them. He was scared the raider would get for him once it was done… and he couldn’t allow that. He couldn’t die lonely…. unloved… He couldn’t…

Time passed, with the small boy barely scraping by. He had the slight advantage that he was a young and rather cute boy, so he could get the sympathy of the adults and could occasionally take a bathe, maybe once every month, and maybe sneak a few leftovers of food. He even was able to trim his hair every now and again. it was just much more practical to keep it short, but he had next to no chance to cut it. Why was he hurting all over? His heart hurt, he was lonely, he was alone… no one liked him… no one was ready to like him, a street rat without a soul. It was too much to love him, he wasn’t worth the effort. But as long as he was alone, he wouldn’t die. He refused to die. Even when his wounds got infected, even if he couldn’t wash himself for a month, even if he had to run from raiders. He refused to die. Even though he slowly grew famished and he could count his ribs, all of them were very much there and visible. How he hated all of this. He wanted to get away, he wanted to be free. But he still hasn’t found the place he was looking for. He wanted to get out. It was dirty and lonely, but he couldn’t believe that he was meant to be alone for his entire life. He refused to believe this.

It have been months…. half a year to be exact… winter had started and he was freezing and starving… he wasn’t able to find any natural food anymore, the lakes are all frozen, he couldn’t catch fish, no one was ready to take him in for the night, the only thing he wore were worn out cheap pants that didn’t offer much protection. Ishimaru became pale, his skin like porcellain, like ugly porcellain, he was an ugly boy, his hair was messy and knotted and reached his chin by now, his red eyes were hollow and dead. He was ready to give up. His steps through the snow were heavy, he couldn’t feel his feet anymore, he couldn’t feel anything but pain. It hurt to move, it hurt to live…

He gasped and then finally collapsed in the snow, ready to be buried underneath it, to be forgotten as just another failure in the Ishimaru-family. He was so close, he just had to fall asleep and he would never wake up again. It was so easy. He finally felt at ease and not even the cold was bothering him much anymore… because he didn’t need to continue anymore, he wanted to die.

And he would have if he didn’t hear the commotion in the back of the alley he collapsed in, his eyes moving upwards towards a small source of light. A purple blur that was running around, growling loudly and throwing other people around, biting and scratching them, yelling insults before he crashes them against the pavement or nearby walls. Ishimaru felt his pupils widen from accepting fear as he weakly tried to push himself up with his arms so he could turn. He was now sitting in the snow, which was way more difficulty than it should have been, and watching, because he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know… he was stupid, wasn’t he? That was probably a stray, just like him, just with the difference that he had a soul and could defend himself. He could go hunt for animals, he didn’t look hungry. He realized too late that he was crying. Was it fear, hunger, the cold? He didn’t know what his problem was… He didn’t know what was wrong with him.

The wolf beat everyone in the alley up, the glowing purple aura providing some strange comfort and Ishimaru couldn’t help but wonder if the light was warm… if aura was warm… The wold turned it’s head and stared at Ishimaru and the boy couldn’t help himself but gasp. He was scary… he was big and strong and truly scary. The smaller boy found himself scooting backwards through the snow, shivering violently as his blue lips shook and his eyes already began to droop. He didn’t want to die like this. Not torn apart by a wolf. He just wanted to fall asleep. He didn’t want to be too hurt…

But the wolf came slowly closer, causing Taka to whimper quietly, his back finally hitting a wall as he curled himself into a tiny ball, quietly crying, too cold to properly talk, to tell the wolf to go away, to scream for help. Help that wouldn’t come. Who would help someone like him anyway?

The wolf’s purple light was strangely comforting when he came closer and when he finally was in Ishimaru’s direct eyesight and the child could finally see him for real, he couldn’t help but regard him. Black hair, amethyst eyes, muscles, big, impressive canines. But he too was rather dirty, so he was most likely a stray. Just like Taka. Just that the other boy didn’t seem to be cold. Maybe aura was actually warm and protected him.

The boy knelt down in front of him, regarding him closely, seemingly sniffing him and looking into his very soul, before finally quietly whimpering and gathering the smaller boy in his arms. Ishimaru’s eyes immediatly widened, the warmth of the boy nearly overwhelming for th eboy who didn’t feel honest warmth in such a long time. It was so warm… He found himself cuddling closer to the wolf, breathing in the burning warmth, he just wanted to be warm. His whole body was numb, he could barely move on his own, he felt like he was already with one foot in the grave… and if he looked closer at the face of the boy, he was looking like it too. He seemed a bit older than Ishimaru. One, maybe two years, his face was already a bit more matured, black marks were under his eyes and his lilac eyes were focused on him and almost shining with concern. No one was ever concerned for him. He liked this feeling… that someone cared for him. He felt like that he could die now… now that he wasn’t alone… So he closed his eyes, finally feeling himself going limb, ready to let go… to finally leave. At least he wasn’t alone anymore… It wasn’t what he wished for it to be, but it was better than dying alone…

He couldn’t remember how he got in this endless darkness. It was only dark because his eyes were closed, but he was so far unable to open them again, he could barely talk, but he didn’t feel as cold as before. He felt like he was in a coccoon of crystal, it was safe but cold and lonely. A voice made him perk up. It was a quiet and comforting voice that caused Ishimaru to softly smile.

“It is too soon for you to die.”

The boy didn’t recognize the voice, he never heard it before in his entire life. So the boy couldn’t help himself but ask, his curiosity getting the better of him as he asked:

“W-who a-are you?”

His voice shook, he couldn’t control the tremble, he felt like being trapped in an egg and feeling ready to hatch but not quite being so far. The voice took it’s time to answer, but when it finally did, he felt a pang of bitterness in his chest, like he was non-fatally being shot but left to die in a cold alleyway.

“I’m your soul.”

Ishimaru grit his teeth in frustration. It was so easy, really?! So easy for his soul to just say something, to announce that it was real?! He could still be with his parents if it would have showed up sooner, he never would have suffered that much if his soul would have decided to show up sooner!

“I…. I hate you.”

His soul answered him, a hint of sadness in it’s voice, but he wasn’t sure if it was really sorry for not showing up in such a long time, for ruining his life. He thought for such a long time that he was soulless, that he wasn’t worth anything, that he would be consumed by a raider because he didn’t have a soul to protect him from the raiders. And now it just answered him, like it wasn’t way too late…. like it was just there as if nothing happened. Like he didn’t spend half a year on the street, hungry, frozen, afraid.

“I know… And I deserve your hatred. But hear me out. I waited as long as I did to achieve the best future possible for you. All this suffering will be worth it… Trust me when I tell you to hang in there, to continue to live… It will be worth it.”

Taka continued to bare his teeth. He was so angry. He was so disappointed. Did his soul seriously think it could get out of this situation so easily? He couldn’t say anything anymore though, his conciousness was already slipping again, he was losing himself again…. or was he waking up in the end? Was he all his life asleep, just to wake up for the first time?

He woke up to light…. he actually survived the night…. and not just that, he wasn’t as cold anymore… and he wasn’t lying in the snow. Where was he? He slowly sat himself up, which was harder than it should have been, considering that he could feel his not as numb body anymore and could feel the pain therefore again. But it didn’t hurt as much as he expected it to hurt. Did his infected wounds get cleaned? He looked down his arms and body and sure enough… he was wrapped in bandages. Who took care of him? The wolf? He looked around in slight confusion, realizing that he was currently in a barn and lying in hay that was warming him.

“H-hello?” He called out, trying to find someone to talk to, his red eyes widening when he found the wolf, the aura now completely gone and revealing him in his fully human form. He still looked the same, well, apart from the purple aura, but he was still big and muscular and had black hair and lilac eyes. he was cowering in front of a fire, throwing a bit of hay inside of it and grilling some meat. The wolf looked up as he heard Ishimaru’s voice, his eyes slightly widening as he got up and slowly approached the small boy, who cowered in fear at first, but quickly came out of his hiding spot when he heard the voice of the wolf. it was calm and low, eben though it was kinda loud, probably due to nervousness.

“Are you okay?! You were gone for quite a while buddy!”

Taka blinked in confusion. How long did he sleep? It only felt like minutes… but it had to be hours if it was now morning. At least hours, he didn’t know which morning it was.

“I feel…. a lot better actually…” Taka admitted, his gaze wandering around. The barn was well protected, strays could live here without any problem, they were protected from snow, rain, wind and raiders… He felt safe here… for the first time in quite some time… it was nice.

The wolf breathed a sigh of relief and held his rough hand out for Ishimaru to take. “That’s a relief. You gave me quite the scare you piece of shit. I’m Mondo by the way.”

Taka took the rough hand and allowed Mondo to lift him up and drag him towards the fire with the meat.

“I’m… T-Taka…. Kiyotaka…” He didn’t want to say his surname, he was scared Mondo would hate him… hate him and throw him out if he knew he was an Ishimaru. It was wrong to lie, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it. He couldn’t be lonely anymore.

Mondo just smiled and patted the spot next to him, which Taka gladly took as he watched the meat burn. A few moments between them were completely silent where they just waited for the meat to be finished, but Taka couldn’t help himself. He had to ask:

“Why did you… help me? Back then?”

Mondo regarded him for a moment, his expression not saying much as he seemed to scan Taka from head to toe, before finally turning back to the meat and slowly taking it off the fire and ripping it off the bone so Taka could have some too, before he finally answered:

“Your aura. It was white. White aura is very rare…. and…. I felt bad for you… You look like you suffered a lot and… I dunno…. maybe I wanted someone else in my pack…”

 

Ishimaru couldn’t help himself but smile at the memory. Back then he had no idea what Mondo meant, but today, he knew better… Mondo was just as lonely as he was. Even though he had his brother with him, he was just a soul and couldn’t provide as much comfort as a real person. Mondo was not an introverted person, he needed someone near to him. He was a wolf and wolves are animals that live in a pack. Mondo needed a friend, a companion, and he found it in Taka…. and they stayed Kyoudais for years after that. Four years in fact. Now Taka was 18 and Mondo 20. And they left the barn after one year after they decided that they had no reason to stay anymore. And as soon as they found the right place… they began to build the dojo. It was near a town, surrounded by cliffs and with enough space for many people. It took almost a year to completely build it. But they did it. And they were very proud of their dojo. Of Hope’s Peak Dojo.

 

Mondo stayed by Taka’s side for hours, he wanted to make sure that his kyoudai didn’t need anything. He was patient when he waited for Taka to wake up, especially if it was his own fault when he was asleep in the first place. A quiet knock startled Mondo out of his thoughts and he turned his head, telling the person on the other end to come in. He expected Chihiro and was all the more surprised when Teruteru’s head poked inside the room, his brows drawn together, a worried frown on his face. His pompadour was ruined and his head wrapped in bandages, just like his right hand. Mondo stood up from the chair he was stationed at, a loud clattering audible as it fell to the ground and he almost shouted from his nervousnes:

“Hanamura! Fuck, I’m so fucking sorry for fucking you up like this, I-”

He didn’t expect Teruteru to smile softly before laughing, finally completely entering the room. “How many times did I tell you that it is okay for you to call me Teruteru? How many times do we need to have this discussion before you finally understand it?”

Mondo looked at the small teenager in surprise. “Ye mean- Ye’r not mad?”

Teruteru chuckled, a rather soothing sound since the chef had a very nice voice to listen to. “Of course I hold no grouch against you. What would I be for a friend if I immediatly hold it against you when you throw me across the room and knock me out? I have been through worse.”

The chef joined the dojo when he was 15… he wasn’t here as long as Chihiro and Leon, considering that that had only been a year and that the chef was now only 16. He didn’t exactly look like 16, but who was he to judge? Mondo couldn’t help himself but smile. The chef was always very forgiving, even though he didn’t know why. He suspected that he wanted to get into Mondo’s pants, but he wasn’t too sure about that, considering that Teruteru always wanted to get into everyones pants.

“How do you feel?”

Teruteru waved with his non-bandaged hand and got his comb out, only to realize that he couldn’t comb his hair right now, resulting in him sighing deeply and stuffing it away again. “My head and back hurt, but I will certainly survive, so you don’t need to worry about me. How is Taka?”

Mondo shot the master a quick glance, regarding him for a moment before answering: “I just hit him badly. Usually it takes more to take him out. So he should be fine.”

In that moment he heard Taka groan quietly, his eyelids twitching as he struggled to open his eyes, before he finally regained his conciousness and opened his red orbs just a glimpse, immediatly seeing Mondo and Teruteru looking at him in worry. He coughed once, twice, to regain his voice, after all, it had already been hours since he talked the last time.

“K-kyoudai.”

Mondo was relieved that Taka was awake again, breathing a deep sigh he wasn’t aware of holding in before finally saying:

“Shit, kyoudai, I’m so fucking sorry.”

Taka laughed weakly and slowly sat himself up to sit against the headrest before coughing once more and finally smirking ans answering with a simple: “Language.”

Which got both Teruteru and Mondo to laugh, since that was exactly what both of them hoped he would say. Taka would be okay. He will probably already train on the next day again, he hardly ever skips training, even when he is sick and he didn’t seem to be in pain. So it would be okay. It always is in the end. Because Ishimaru isn't alone anymore. He would be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Go and talk with me on https://www.tumblr.com/blog/shsl-askee   
> Go on, do it. I have nothing to do. Talk with me about the story or something else. My ask-box is open for you! ^^


	3. Raiders Woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leon and Chihiro look for herbs to help Taka and Teruteru and have an unpleasant encounter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sunday-Chapter! I hope you guys enjoy reading it. Feedback would be much appreciated, just like kudos. Thank you very much for reading! ^^

“Do you think Taka and Teru are gonna be okay?” Asked Chihiro while crouching, careful that their skirt doesn’t reveal anything while they were looking for herbs and mushrooms on the ground. They weren’t as good with this stuff as Teruteru, but it was good enough to know which was good for you and which will kill you, so this was something.

“Pff, these two had far worse. This is nothing more than a scratch to them!” Leon basically laughed as he appeared behind a rather large tree, mushrooms gathered in his arms, causing Chihiro to look up and almost scream:

“LEON! THose are poisonous mushrooms, throw them away!”

The redhead yelped and immediatly dropped all the mushrooms he had gathered and thought looked pretty enough to eat, jumping a foot away from the offending… vegetables? What even were mushrooms?

“I DIDN’T KNOW, I’M SORRY!”

“OBVIOUSLY YOU DIDN’T KNOW! Why did you pick the purple mushrooms with the yellow spots?!”

Leon made a strange noise. It was a mixture of a choking deer and a vibrating phone before he answered with a surprisingly neutral voice: “I know why I did it, but you would yell at me if I tell you the reason, so I’m not going to tell you.”

Chihiro couldn’t help themselves but squint at the redhead for multiple seconds before sighing in defeat and focusing back on the herbs in front of them.

The forest they were currently in was nearby the dojo. They had to walk less than a mile and then they were already there. Many fruit and berries and also herbs were growing in this forest and many animals lived here, the only problem it had was that it was littered with raiders. Raiders were everywhere, just waiting for a good opportunity to take over a human and take their soul in the vague hope to become a human themselves. This is also the reason why Chihiro and Leon were together. It’s easier to fight a raider when they are two people. It was one of the first rules in the Hopes-Peak Dojo, to never go alone into the forest. It isn’t knows as ‘Raiders-Woods’ for nothing after all.

Leon made sure to take a big step around the mushrooms he just dropped before crouching next to Chihiro, squinting critically at the different herbs. He had no idea what Chihiro was looking for, he was always bad at this stuff. He learned pretty soon that the prettiest things in nature weren’t the tastiest…. or healthiest for that matter, but Leon couldn’t help himself but return to his old search-pattern. He wasn’t a person that could crawl around for hours and look for the exactly right mushrooms and grasses, it just wasn’t his thing. He would get yelled at from Ishimaru every time he brought a colourful mushroom back, but it was never enough to motivate him to care. He just couldn’t bother. He was just here for protection, if it would come to the situation of a raider attacking them.

Not that Chihiro was in need of protection, god no, far from it actually. Chihiro may not look like it, but they are strong. Electricity is a useful power to have, especially to fight raiders and souls, since it almost always stuns them and leaves enough time to damage them properly. And what the smalller one lacks in muscles they compensate with speed. They can zoom over the battlefield like a little bolt, the powers of their sould were certainly useful. He always envied them. Leon couldn’t help himself but stare at the smaller one with awe but also bitterness. He respected Chihiro, but he envied them just as much. They saw their soul when they were very young and trained their electric powers very early on, whereas Leon doesn’t even know if he has a soul.

He felt his fists and jaw clench, his muscles tensing up as he thought about the conversation he and Ishimaru had. He remembered it very clearly, how they sat together, across from each other, looking into each others eyes over the tea Taka had made. How Taka told him that he might be soulless, that he would never have any powers, that he would never be able to show his true powers. The thought horrified Leon. He wanted a soul, he needed a soul. Soulless people were the preferred prey of raiders and people without a soul are considered of less worth than other people, he couldn’t have no soul, it was just not an option. He didn’t want to be the person that people left to die, just because he didn’t have a soul. The thought scared him to the very core and it still does, causing him to shiver slightly as he was lost in his thoughts, not even snapping out of it when Chihiro glanced over to the redhead, who was staring intently at the different herbs. They would have thought that Leon was trying to help them, but his gaze was mistier than a swamp in the morning. He was currently far away.

Leon had asked Taka back then if he knew when his soul would most likely show up, that he was excited to see his powers and how his soul looked like. He remembered Ishimaru wincing slightly at the question, his grip around his bamboo-cup tightening as he explained to Leon that, if his soul hasn’t made itself known by now, the chance to not have any soul was fairly high, which crushed Leon back then. It still does. He asked Taka if he was soulless, a blunt question, he knew, but he didn’t care enough to bother. He just heard that he might not have a soul, might be of less worth to humans than other people, it was a hard time for him. It IS a hard time for him. Taka shook his head back then and explained that he has sometimes conversations with his soul when he is asleep, but he also claims that he had never seen his soul nor any powers connected to it, so he isn’t sure if it is just a subconcious wish or truly his soul which just wasn’t ready yet.

Leon didn’t startle out of his thought, even when Chihiro pulled at the sleeve of his jacket he had thrown over himself in case it would be cold in the Raider’s Woods and he also didn’t react to the smaller one calling out to him, his gaze as empty as before, as if nothing ever happened. Leon was far gone right now and apparently not yet ready to return to them.

“Leon? Leon, come on, we have to go back. We can use these herbs to numb a bit of the pain Teru and Taka could be feeling. We shouldn’t waste any more time.”

They started tapping Leon on the shoulder, basically rattling him, eyebrows slowly pulling together. Something was wrong. Not only the thing that’s bothering Leon. Something else was going on. Usually Leon was fairly easy to startle out of his thoughts. What was going on?

Chihiro was immediatly on their legs, looking frantically around for any threat, not noticing the spider-thread that was forming itself right underneath Leon who was still trapped in his own thoughts.

The smaller one yelped loudly when the net suddenly snapped and tied Leon’s legs up, immediatly dragging him away who finally snapped out of his thoughts and was practically screaming as he tried to grab the muddy ground, but it was too unstable for him to somehow stop himself, so he just left scratch-marks and pulled out grass. “CHIHIRO!”

Their eyes widened and they called after Leon before making chase, the stress causing little sparks to emitt from them as they tried to keep track of the rapidly dragged off Leon who kept calling out to Chihiro and trying to hold onto anything that could keep him in place, only for weeds to get pulled out, for thorny bushes to cut through his hands and for dirt to give in. Chihiro had problems coming after him since a few of the things were in the way and the thing that was dragging him away seemed to be strong.

It had to be a raider. It had to be. The trees were close to each other and hid the creature from view, but Chihiro was certain. What else could it be?

Chihiro skidded to a halt, their choose making a soft screeching noise as the dirt piled in front of them, their brown eyes wide as they saw the giant spider’s nest between two big trees, the string made of crystal-like silk, with Leon being trapped in the middle, ankles and wrists sticking to the net. He was completely stuck. The weird thing was, that Leon didn’t even try to escape. He didn’t move at all. In fact… his gaze was very empty, blue eyes dull and just staring to the side.

“Leon?!” Chihiro tried calling out to him, but the redhead didn’t react at all. His eyes didn’t even move. This caused the brunet to stop, to regard Leon closer. It was at this moment that they noticed how pale the redhead suddenly was, his veins visible in a disturbing purple and bite-marks of sharp fangs gracing his neck in an ugly purple, as if to claim him as property. Did the raider bite him?!

The quiet clicking of a creature caused Chihiro to jump back, towards Leon, their eyes as round as plates as they got finally a glimpse at the raider. It was a spide-raider, and a very big one at that. It’s body was long and it’s purple veins were pulsing, the black spider legs softly clicking against the ground, causing the fallen leaves to rustle and announce it’s presence. It’s upper body looked almost human, almost like a nude woman, only that it has four pitch-black eyes and a wide mouth with dangerous, blood stained fangs, it’s hair white and wild, sticking all over the place and going down it’s back until it reached it’s long spider-body, effectively censoring it’s breasts at the same time, as if it was something desirable. It was an ugly sound, almost like a wet cackling, purple poison spewing from it’s mouth as it did so, wide smirk returning as it announced:

“No part of you will remain to ever leave these woods.”

Chihiro knew thart this raider wanted to get both of their humanity. While Chihiro was already in touch with their soul and had therefore a light protection against the manipulative and brutal powers against raiders, they weren’t immune. Even people with souls could fall victim to raiders. They had to be careful, Leon was already out and if they get caught too, then they truly lost, since Mondo won’t be able to follow them with Teruteru and Ishimaru being hurt.

They changed their stance, their legs slightly spread, body lowered, completely focused on the terrible monster in front of them, a light breeze rustling their hair and clothes with him remaining unmoved. “Just let us go. We don’t want to hurt you. Please just release my friend and let us leave.”

The creature cackled again, an ugly sound that send shivers down Chihiro’s spine, while at the same time triggering angry emotions inside of them, since it was a sign that they had to fight this creature.

Their confusion rose when it used one of it’s hands to cover it’s ugly mouth while pointing with two towards the trapped Leon, giggling stupidly as it spat, poison lacing it’s words: “You have to get through him first.”

That wasn’t rare. Raiders tended to use their prey to fend off potential saviours. It was hard to get the prey to snap out of their control, to fight back, to help them, but it was something the brunet had to do now. They didn’t know if they were ready to fight Leon just yet but he didn’t really have a choice in that matter. They liked Leon a lot, they couldn’t lose him to something like this. They will rather fight than lose him to a raider, obviously.

But…. Leon didn’t do anything. He didn’t move, he just kept in the web, a distant expression on his face. What was this creature doing? What was it’s goal? Chihiro didn’t know where to go to, the creature was so large but they didn’t feel safe with backing off either, since Leon was still in the net, purple poison and blood dripping down his neck from the biting wound and already forming a small puddle underneath him. Dammit, what was this creatures plan?!

Their eyes shifted down to the puddle on the ground, noticing that it seemed to be…. moving, like it was influenced by tides, which was just impossible. And it got more and more and it got higher and higher. It slowly began to form a humanoid creature, made of purple poison with red blood flowing through it, eyes practically glowing with an evil energy. It was an almost exact replica of Leon, just evil and purple, something Chihiro could have sworn they had dreamt about at one point, but that didn’t matter right now. The poison kept flowing down and continued to make replicas of Leon, soulless soldiers for the spider to control. Chihiro lowered their body slightly, awaiting any incoming attacks. They remembered the training with Ishimaru very clearly in that moment.

He always told them that their body was rather small, which was their biggest weakness and strenght at the same time. They were fast and couldn’t be caught so easily, but it also meant that they had to have a rather passive and also sly fighting-style. Countering and dodging everything the enemy could throw at them, trying to get into position so they were behind the enemy and could use their electric powers to instantly knock them out or just weaken them. It was a great strategy Ishimaru and Chihiro trained together for quite some time and now they were finally ready to use it in a truly serious situation.

One of the Leon’s charged forward, ready to grab the brunet, not expecting Chihiro to make a high jump, high enough for their feet to land on his shoulders before quickly making themselves small, waiting for a moment since the Leon now stumbled rather helplessly and once their feet were on his back they jumped, causing the purple slave to fall into the dirt, soundless groans escaping him as Chihiro made an elegant figure in the air before shooting down on another Leon like heavens fist.

The victim of this attack immediatly exploded into blood and poison, giving Chihiro some time to regard the situation, their eyes widening when they saw that the purple Leon slowly rebuild himself, which made Chihiro realize that they could fight these slaves all day, they were just slaves and were neither going to hurt the spider if they hit them, nor were they helping Leon that way. They needed to do something else.

So Chihiro dashed forward and made another jump, using one of the Leon’s as cushion, their feet making contact with his chest before making another jump, shooting up into the air like an arrow and landing on one of the trees the crystal-net was made in. They regarded the net a bit closer, making sure that their plan could actually work. The net seemed to be actually made of crystals, purple crystals with liquid in and on them which pulled at the corner of their lips, a huge smile forming as they felt electricity run through them. This would work, it was almost too easy.

They took a few strings in one hand and send a few strong shocks through it, the electricity getting carried all the way over to Leon who twitched and flinched, his body and mind trying to catch up with what was happening. Leon was under no mental influence, it was just the poison that was numbing his mind and keeping his body down. But when Chihiro forced a reaction with electricity the redhead would automatically jerk around and, just like they predicted, rip strings and fall to the ground, landing on knees and hands, his eyes wide as he immediatly vomited up poison, so much poison, his body now awake and getting rid of the strange liquid the spider put into him.

Chihiro jumped into the air and sent multiple bolts to the ground right below them, in between the actual Leon and his mindless copies, protecting the redhead while he was still recovering from the assault. Chihiro soon realized that this raider was rather weak. Big, yes, but it apparently didn’t know much about handling the powers it had. It could be a much bigger threat if it would have had a different strategy.

Chihiro zoomed through all the fake Leon’s, bouncing off of them like a bouncing ball, lightning surrounding them as they shocked the copycats to the ground, the human blood inside of them reacting to Chihiro’s powers, whereas the original Leon slowly opened his blue eyes again, finally able to focus on the world around him, looking around in confusion and in shock at the raider and Chihiro.

Leon’s eyes widened for a moment before realizing the words the brunet sent towards him: “I could need a boost for this!”

The redhead blinked, thinking intently about what they could do. The spider was big and scary and a gigantic crystal was on its back and pulsing purple, maybe the source of all their poison. …Which gave Leon a truly genius idea. A huge grin formed on his face, his rather sharp teeth showing as he exclaimed: “Condor attack!”

Chihiro got the command and immediatly let themselves fall backwards, arms reaching behind them and getting caught by Leon and spun around while Chihiro tried their best to not get taken over by the power and flail around helplessly. Their muscles tensed so they could stay close to Leon’s body until they were finally thrown up, much higher than they could ever jump, but it wasn’t enough yet. They weren’t high enough yet.

Leon sprinted forward, towards the raider, a daring move and made a brave jump, dodging one load of poison in the last second, landing on the leg and jumping off of it again, making a spin in the air and looking at Chihiro as he turned, so his feet were upwards while Chihiro readjusted aswell so their feet were downward. In the air, they finally met, their feet joined together for just a second, before Leon practically launched the brunet into the air, he himself brutally crashing to the ground while Chihiro was now above all the trees and staring almost smugly down at the spider. When they were higher, the stronger were their powers, they could absorb the electricity better when they were high up. And right now, they were LOADED.

And since the spider was so large and the forest so cramped, it couldn’t run away as the giant bolt came down, shattering the purple crystal on impact and emitting a high-pitched shriek from the raider as the poison was flowing out of them, causing them to become smaller and smaller and even uglier than before, not that any of them thought that this was possible. It twitched and groaned and screamed until it was so small that it might aswell be an actual spider, legs sticking into the air but folded, an indication that it was dead.

Leon hauled himself up on a branch and jumped up, catching Chihiro before they could land painfully, the brunet giggling at that and hugging the redhead around the neck to not fall off.

“You- You did it Chi! You got that raider!”

They were put on the ground, able to observe the battlefield. So much blood and poison. Leon didn’t seem to have lost too much blood though, so that was good. They were very worried about him.

They turned around and tilted their head slightly, asking: “What do you mean? I never could have done that without you! I’m not able to launch myself that high into the air!”  
Leon ‘tsk’d and kicked a pebble on the ground, watching it sink in a pond of poison as he answred, running a hand through his wild red hair: “This fight never would have started if I didn’t fall for the raider in the first place!”

Chihiro bit their lip, a strange determination soaring through them as they exclaimed: “Are you kidding me?! Who is always the one that tells me that it isn’t my fault if a raider gets a hold of me?! Who always tells me that it’s not the prey’s but the hunters fault and that we can’t do anything against them, despite having a soul and even that only can do so much?!”

Leon cringed slightly at that, knowing he and Taka always said this stuff, but the redhead really wasn’t in the mood to discuss right now. So he just looked away and said: “Whatever. Can we just go? I wanna get out of here now, one raider-fight the day is enough for me.”

Chihiro had to agree, they both were exhausted now and should go back to rest for a while. Also the brunet wanted to take a look at the bite-mark that was still on Leon’s neck, even though it was only red now, nothing of the poison remained since the raider was dead now, but they just wanted to make sure.

“Yeah, you’re right, let’s go. We have to go pick up our herbs and mushrooms though, I dropped them when I chased after youl.”

Leon grinned weakly before shrugging and slinging an arm around Chihiro’s shoulders, even though he had to make himself much smaller to do so. “Sure thing Chi. You think Mondo will believe us how badass you were today?”

Chihiro laughed heartily and pushed Leon, forward, saying: “How badass *we* were! But seriously, he is never going to believe us that we pulled of the ‘Condor Attack’, even though me and Mondo practiced it far more often but were never able to do!”

Both of them laughed at the imagination of Mondo’s dumbfounded and probably frustrated expression as soon as he hears that Leon did something better than him, even after all that training. it was a hilarious picture.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come talk to me on https://www.tumblr.com/blog/shsl-askee  
> Talk about the story or anything, I don't really care.


	4. Panini Head

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing is still doing good because I have a few days off at work, so this chapter comes a bit earlier. I hope you guys enjoy this little chapter.   
> Comments would be very much appreciated!

“Condor!”

Over the past days Leon became exceptionally good at throwing Chihiro around while the brunet became surprisingly good at soaring through the air and landing safely, in case Leon threw them wrong, which happened quite some time while the two of them trained their knew technique, the condor. It was efficient but hard to master.

And just like they expected, Mondo was flabbergasted and also grumpy that Leon managed to perform this attack with Chihiro while he threw either too hard or too soft and wasn’t fast enough to catch them in time.

The currently performed attack startled Taka a bit. He was just always worried when any of his friends were thrown in the air, it was just common sense. But regardless, this training-fight was going smoothly, but the master had no idea how to counter this attack. it was the first time it was used against him. He glanced over to Mondo who looked just as clueless has he currently felt.

As soon as Mondo allowed him and Teruteru to leave the bed, which was this morning, Taka wanted to train with Chihiro and Leon to see what they were now capable of. And since he wanted a fair fight Mondo tagged along for a team-fight, with Teruteru standing not far off as the judge to make sure nothing serious happens again.

And now, that Taka is confronted with the condor attack, he didn’t know how to counter it. Leon threw Chihiro up, far enough to not just follow if you didn’t have a soul that allowed you to fly and he and Mondo were currently giving them enough time to charge to defeat them in one hit. He looked around hectically, focusing on the ledge of the roof that protected the different rooms while they were in the center of the dojo, which didn’t have a roof.

“Kyoudai, I have an idea, come!” Mondo complied and ran after Ishimaru fairly quick, unsure what this great plan could be, but knowing Taka, it wouldn’t be a great but rather a reckless and stupid plan that Taka just labeled as ‘great’. Taka folded his hands together as if to form a bridge and then looked at Mondo’s hands, saying:

“Give me a boost Kyoudai!”

Mondo squinted slightly at him, but he knew just as much as Taka that they didn’t really have a choice in that matter, so he had to complyand bowed down at the waist to fold his hands like Taka did. The master placed his booted foot in Mondo’s hands and got hoisted up, high enough for him to be able to grab the ledge and basically throw himself up with enough force to be able to do a small flip, landing in a crouch, looking determinendly up at Chihiro, who was still charging, while Mondo watched anxiously, even though he didn’t have much time since in that moment Leon came to keep him busy, throwing skilled punched and kicks that Mondo had to dodge and block.

Take ran over the roof, over to the spot where he would be closest to Chihiro, his muscles tensing as he came closer to the edge, jumping in the very last moment. Taka was a very strong person, even though he didn’t look like it at all, but underneath the clothes he wore, there were very prominent muscles. Chihiro didn’t expect Ishimaru to literally jump at them and especially not to grab them, literally glueing himself onto them and immediatly yelling loudly since all the electricity Chihiro was absorbing is now flowing through him aswell. And Chihiro, who didn’t expect that screamed too, from the sheer stress and pain from feeling electricity that was sent to Ishimaru and back to them. Now that there were two people the electricity was flowing through, that made it painful.

Leon and Mondo turned immediatly around when they heard their partners screaming, eyes widening when they saw what was currently happening while Teruteru was thoroughly debating if he should stop the fight, but decided in the end to see how this would play out. If they were hurt when they would land, he would call it invalid and treat the injuries.

A little explosion was visible and audible and out of the smoke cloud fell Chihiro, eyes closed and apparently recovering from the electricity, Leon’s eyes widening as he yelled the brunets name and chased towards them, making a literal swandive to grab Chihiro mid-air and quickly turning, so it would be him to fall on the ground and not the brunet. Leon felt like all the air got kicked out of his lungs and he gasped loudly, but he wasn’t hurt badly. And apparently, so wasn’t Chihiro. They quickly opened their eyes and stared at Leon in worry, placing their hands on his shoulders and shaking him slightly. 

“Leon?! Are you okay? Did I hurt you?!”

Leon just smiled, before giving them a thumbs up and saying: “Takes more than that to take me out, buddy.”

Both of them turned around to the still prominent dust-cloud, watching a black and white blur falling down in front of them, falling to one knee before immediatly standing up, tall and disciplined, almost like a soldier. Ishimaru’s gaze was down so his eyes weren’t visible, his hair even spikier than usually, his muscles slightly twitching, still recovering from the electricity. When he looked up to glare at Leon and Chihiro, both their jaws dropped when they saw his usually very intense red eyes even more intense, almost as if they were glowing, like they were light-bulbs Chihiro powered with the electricity, little red sparks emitting from them.

Both of them were terrified for a moment, not able to do anything, just stare at him in unfathomable fear, huddled together on the floor with Taka looming over them. But just for a moment, since he very quickly began to grin before laughing loudly, apparently very happy with what just happened. 

“That was amazing! This attack of yours is extraordinaire! This was the only way I could have stopped it, I’m terrible sorry Chihiro! How about we call it a tie and take a little break?”

Mondo ran over to the group, just like Teruteru, both of them asking if Chihiro and Taka were okay, even though Mondo asked it a bit more vulgarly than Teruteru.

“What the fuck were you thinking, you fucking idiot?! You could have gotten yourselve’s killed!”

“Are you two okay?! Are any of you hurt? Do you need me to fetch something?!”

Taka laughed again, grabbing the hand Mondo had offered him as some form of endurance handshake, only for Mondo to yelp loudly, his hair starting to stand in every direction with Taka’s eyes widening and quickly retreating his hand to look at it in shock. He was still loaded with Chihiro’s electricity and shocked Mondo so hard, he now looked like a big puffball with his hair ruined. He couldn’t supress a snort at the sight and even Chihiro giggled while Leon laughed and Teruteru chuckled. A strangely sly smile formed on Taka’s face as he spread his arms and loudly announced:

“How about a hug Teruteru, my old friend?”

The chef’s eyes widened in fear and he practically screeched a “GET AWAY FROM ME!” Before he skated away, terrified for his carefully crafted pompadour, the ground underneath him immediatly turning to ice, causing Taka to jump over it skillfully while chasing after the smallest one, Hanamura’s screeching and Taka’s amused yelling audible through the whole dojo, with Leon, Chihiro and Mondo getting stomachaches while laughing so hard.

“I’m sorry, okay? Will you please talk to me again Teru?”

Taka was now trying to start a conversation with Teruteru for an hour, the small chef quietly sulking in the kitchen while preparing something to eat for dinner, very obviously not amused, his hair sticking into every direction after Taka had caught him in the end and hugged him until he was a walking magnet. The master didn’t expect Teruteru to become this upset, to the point where he completely ignored Ishimaru, something that had never happened before. It made him a little bit uncomfortable. So he decided to help the chef with preparing dinner, thinking that his cooking might be decent enough to not give Teruteru an aneurism, maybe.

He was just putting some chicken on a plate, ready for serving, the chef immediatly yelling a “STOP!” and making Taka freeze in his tracks. Literally, his feet were currently frozen. He was still wearing his thick boots so he didn’t really feel it, but it was still highly unusual for the chef to use his powers like this.

Teru regarded the chicken on the plate with a very critical expression, a strange smile on his face as he asked: “Hey Ishimaru. Why did the chicken cross the road?”

The taller one tilted his head slightly, a bit confused at the sudden question, not expecting that the currently upset chef would tell him a joke as the first thing he would say to him after the incident. He expected more something like yelling and maybe thrown mashed potatos and some carefully chosen insults.Taka worried his bottom lip between his teeth, not sure what he was supposed to say.

He was just about to tell Teruteru just that, before he yelped loudly and quickly ducked since the frying pan was promptly thrown in his direction, accompanied by a rather loud: “BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T FUCKING COOK IT!”

The ice around Ishimaru’s feet had long melted but the master never felt so cold in his life. Teruteru looked terrifying, his small eyes holding a strange blue glow while cold air seemed to radiate from him, enough to make it basically snow inside of the room, the floor slowly beginning to freeze underneath him. Ishimaru’s mouth dropped open, unable to come up with anything to say, instead quickly turning around, sprinting around the corner, dodging an icicle and some sushi thrown in his direction, accompanied by some chosen insults like ‘PANINIHEAD’ , ‘MASHED POTATO BRAIN’ and also ‘MOLDY CHEESEFACE’ with some female superstars like ‘NICKI MINAJ’ and ‘PARIS HILTON’ thrown in his rather vulgar rant.

Taka practically ripped the door open and rushed out, slamming it shut again with Leon, Chihiro and Mondo, who have been waiting in front of the door, staring. Taka blocked the door with his body in a panic, actually terrified that Teruteru would follow him, staying there until he was absolutely sure that the chef wouldn’t come out of this door and terrify him to no end.

He then slowly shook his head. “He is very angry. I doubt I will be able to interact with him in any way today.”

Chihiro tilted their head slightly, eyes ever-so-slightly squinting, eyes casted to the side and eyebrows pulled together as the thought: “But this is really strange, isn’t it? Teruteru is passionate, yes, about his hair and food and love, but he likes us, doesn’t he? Why would he react like that over some ruined hair? It happened before…”

Taka could only nod in agreement, thinking carefully about his words before he explained: “I thought it strange too. This is by far no reason for him to snap like that and usually he reacts much differently to something like ruined hair.”

Mondo, who leaned casually against a wall, with his arms over his chest, pulled one eyebrow up as he asked: “So you think something else is the trigger for his behaviour?”

Taka nodded, running a hand through his short and spiky hair as he concluded: “You know, I only saw him like this once. …And it was when he was scared out of his mind.”

Teruteru is an emotional person, but he copes with his emotions differently than other persons. When he is very very scared he gets very aggressive and defensive instead, making it difficult to tell if he is actually angry or scared about something. But Taka recognized it. The way his eyes shifted to the door every now and again, the glistening of seat on his brow, the fact that he didn’t even try to repair his ruined pompadour…

Teruteru was scared. And Ishimaru had to find out of what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come talk with me on https://www.tumblr.com/blog/shsl-askee


	5. You got This

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing special to say here. Didn't have much time to write this week, but I got chapters prepared thankfully. Comments would be much appreciated, they keep my motivation high and might give me new ideas to implement. ^^

As it turned out, Teruteru wouldn’t calm down for the rest of the day. He was brooding and ranting in the kitchen and serving one angrily cooked dish after the other. It was delicious food, there was no doubt about that, but Taka didn’t feel good about eating food that his chef made out of fear about something. He just needed one more sign to be completely certain he was scared and not angry. And it was the return of his accent.

Teruteru always had a rather odd sentence, it sounded a bit southern, even though he tried his very best to hide it. But when he is scared, then he just starts yapping, his words melting together and making them unintelligable. As soon as Taka heard Teruteru saying something in his accent, he knew that something was wrong. The chef was always so keen on hiding it, he had admitted to him once that he was embarrassed about not being born and raised in the city but in the middle of nowhere, in a village no one even knew the name about, Taka knew he had to do something. But… it was hard to help when you don’t know what the problem is.

Teruteru didn’t talk to Taka for the whole remainder of the day. It was sad, really, because the master really did want to help the chef, but he had to wait until Teruteru was ready to share his problem with him. Which didn’t happen for the whole remainder of the day, forcing Taka to train with Leon while Mondo and Chihiro worked on the powers of their soul, with the chef not leaving the kitchen and no one able to coax him out of his strange behaviour. So Ishimaru had no other choice but to go to bed and try his luck the next day. He wished all of his friends a good night and walked past the kitchen, knocking gently and listening if Teruteru was still in there. Every movement immediatly stopped, but it was obvious that the chef was still in there, the light was still on.

“Hey, Teruteru. I don’t know what got you so nervous or if it was something I did, but I want to help… Please tell me if I did something wrong, so I can apologize and not do it again, but if it is something else…. tell me that too… because I’m worried and want to help you…”

He waited in front of the door for a few more minutes, before sighing, his eyes closing as he felt disappointment rising. He had hoped he would at least hear something from the chef. But if he wasn’t ready to tell him, that was completely fine.

“Good night, Teru.”

What Taka didn’t know was, that Teruteru was sitting in the kitchen, on one of the tables where they usually ate, a picture of all of them and some people who already left the dojo on it. He remembered some of them very clearly. Rantaro Amami only stayed for a short time, he was a traveller and just needed a crashcourse of how to properly use the powers of your soul. He stayed for a month but was around when the picture was taken. Teruteru liked him, he was a good guy and he always got offended when he was compared to an avocado, it was hilarious.

Sakura Oogami and Aoi Asahina were also around for a while, with Sakura checking out different Dojo’s to find worthy training partners. She was happy to spar with Mondo, even though the big guy didn’t want to fight with a girl, but these two didn’t leave him much of a choice. Hina just went along with Sakura, looking for some nice places to swim in, looking for a challenge and of course for some good food. But Teruteru’s food sadly wasn’t enough to keep her around since Sakura DID in fact want to leave and she took Hina with her.

Mikan also stuck around for a while, even though it was more of a praktica for the hospital she was working it, so she could specialize on injuries that were inflicted on fighting and especially on souls. She only stayed for 2 months at best before she had to return, she wasn’t a skilled nurse for nothing.

Teruteru sniffled slightly as he looked at the picture of all of them, smiling or grinning like idiots while holding a banner of the Hope’s Peak Dojo into the air, everyone seemed very happy. The chef wished there were more people around, the dojo is big, it would easily be able to hold up to 30 people, but right now, they were only 5. And Teruteru always cooked way too much food for the 5 of them. He stood up, picture frame in hand and placed it back on the wall, the small chef forced to climb a latter to put it back to it’s original place, looking up at it with a warm smile. These memories were treasures. And he hoped he would be able to greet the next apprentices that would start here.

“Good night Taka.”

\-----------------------

The master didn’t expect to wake up in the middle of the night. The sun still hasn’t risen and a somewhat chilly breeze was coming in from his opened window. Taka blinked in slight confusion, yawning heartily before getting out of bed, the wood underneath him making creaking noises with every step. It almost sounded like he head music, but that couldn’t be it, right? Who would hear music at that ungodly hour? He risked a glance at his alarm-clock, squinting suspiciously at the display when it was, in fact, 3 in the morning. Who was still up at this hour and listening to music? Leon used to do that, but after the first very hard training he had to go through, he usually goes to bed early to be energized for the next day, even though he still tends to come too late to morning calls.

Taka yawned again and rubbed one of his ruby-eyes before finally looking outside into the night, the only source of light the moond. The master was more than surprised to see someone training at this ungodly hour. He was even more surprised to see that it was Teruteru, who didn’t come here to train his fighting abilities at all. He is probably the weakest fighter in the dojo, which is because he isn’t here for fighting but cooking. So why was Teruteru training? And why now of all times? Does his fear have something to do with this?

Taka observed for a few minutes how Teruteru skated around the battlefield and apparently tried to shoot quick and strong icicles at a target-dummy. The problem was just that he nearly missed ever single one and when he hit the dummy he almost skated out of the arena, which would have disqualified him since it was on the same level as forfeiting.

Once Taka was sure he has seen enough he turned around and grabbed a thin jacket out of his closet to throw it over the grey shirt he was currently wearing before leaving his room, making a quick stop in the kitchen to grab a glass of water and to go outside. He opened the door quietly and continued to watch Teruteru for a while, before finally saying, maybe a little bit too loudly:

“Training hard I see?!”

Teruteru audibly shrieked and sent 5 icicles in his direction, all 5 missing him by inches and landing in the wall behind him and in the door. Taka’s expression didn’t waver however. He had a bright grin on his face as he looked at the now wet ground since Hanamura’s ice seemed to have melted already.

The chef had a surprisingly bitter look on his face, holding his position for several seconds before making a frustrated dismissive noise and kicking the wet dirt angriliy, cursing quietly before hissing a “Selena Gomez!” for good measure.

Taka slowly came closer, the glass of water still in his hand, even though he could see that it was getting colder by the second. He knew Teruteru for a year and knew how the young chef was ticking.

The smaller one was blowing out a breath through his nose and walked over to Ishimaru, taking the glass of water and downing it in one quick gulp, giving it back with a sigh before greeting the master:

“Good morning. I hope I didn’t wake you up.”

He did, but Taka wouldn’t say that, it would be rude. He may be honest, but he is not mean or rude.

“That’s not important right now.”

The chef looked up at Taka, an oddly dejected look on his face, as if he had just seen that his favourite idol kicked a puppy and spit on it afterwards. He quickly pulled out his comb and started going through his now fixed pompadour, his movements long and fluid. It meant he wasn’t panicked, probably just nervous. If he was very anxious his movements would be much shorter and more jagged.

“What’s wrong Teruteru. Please tell me. It’s not going to help anyone if you keep quiet about it, don’t you think?”

He sat down on the porch and patted the spot next to him, the young chef hesitating for a moment before following the master and sitting down next to him, staring up at the night-sky just like Ishimaru did. The stars were sparkling and the moon was illuminating the night, the cold air from Teruteru’s training in a mist visible.

“I was just…. in thought. I thought about how Mondo knocked you out and how I wasn’t able to help… and how Leon and Chihiro came back hurt from the Raiders Woods…”

Taka’s gaze snapped to the distracted chef in a matter of seconds, surprise clearly showing on his face. That was what was bothering him? But that didn’t explain why he acted so angry and scared. There had to be more… right? …Or maybe it was bugging him for a while now. Maybe he was stressed about it for a while now and yesterday he just… snapped…. a person never shifts from a 0 to a 100 and if it seemed to have happened, then he just didn’t notice how long they were already on 99… how many times did Teruteru come out here to train in the night?

“I…. didn’t want to use my soul all that much, especially not in cooking. It… feels like cheating, you know? There are even people who use their souls to manipulate the other contestants or the judges in shows to mess up or to rate their own food good. It doesn’t sit right with me. But after seeing how useless I am…. I thought I could become a bit stronger, not for cooking, but for actually defending myself… I would be helpless if I would get mugged or if someone tries to screw with me during competitions…. I need to become stronger…”

Taka looked at Teruteru for some moments, before breaking into a huge award-winning smile and patting the chef a bit too roughly on the back, causing him to yelp and cough, while the master boasted out: “That’s great! I was already wondering when you would see it like I do!”

The chef was only able to blink in confusion, needing a few seconds to properly process what Isimaru had just said, and even after the given time he was only able to dumbly repeat: “…Like you do?”

The master nodded enthusiastically and jumped up, offering Teruteru his hand as he announced: “Of course I will support you in any way I can! So let’s go! Let’s train together!”

The chef would have never expected That Taka would help him train in the middle of the night because of such a stupid reason. But he was grateful nontheless and grabbed the master’s hand after only a little bit of hesitation, yelping quietly when he got hoisted up like a dead weight and almost flew over Isimaru’s head. He felt his knees go weak, his current abilities were pathetic compared to Chihiro, Mondo and even Leon. He just hoped that Ishimaru wouldn’t be too disappointed with him.

\------------------------

“You’re doing great Teru! But you need to move more! Your Ice-Skating is an incredible talent, you have to use it!” Encouraged Taka who was currently dodging one of Teruteru’s snowballs that so far weren’t able to hit a single target, which frustrated the chef to no end. Since the chef’s target was now alive he switched to snowballs instead of icicles, afraid to actually hurt Taka.

When Teruteru came a bit too close to the master he immediatly tried a strong footsweep to knock the chef off his feet, but he was surprised when Teruteru instead made a jump, twirling in the air before landing on one foot, currently skating backwards and having enough time to shoot multiple snowballs to the back of Ishimaru’s head while the master was still in the movement of his foot-sweep.

Ishimaru turned around, a huge grin on his face as he basically yelled: “You did it Teruteru! That was an amazing technique you used there! I have never seen anyone else with an ice-soul using this kind of technique!”

The chef felt a small blush ever so slightly gracing his chubby cheeks, he was just thankful that it was dark and not as visible. “Oh, I’m glad you feel the same way Taka.” He responded, smooth as ever, making it sound like a love-confession on absolute purpose, who do you think he is? And of course, like always, flew the innuendo completely over Ishimaru’s head and a strange determination began to shine in his ruby eyes as he announced:

“Now let’s see how you make yourself in the defense!”

The chef’s small eyes widened slightly, about to ask what Kyiotaka meant, only to yelp and quickly duck when the master sprinted towards him and threw a punch in his direction.

“You’re small Teruteru! Almost every fighter is taller than you! Use it to your advantage!”

Taka was right! He had to use his size! He made a small jump on Taka’s leg when he tried a kick instead of a punch and placed his hand on Ishimaru’s chest, sending a wave of ice towards him that made him yell and fly backwards, the master quickly making a flip in the air and bending forward for better balance as he skidded back on the icy ground, almost sliding out of the ring but barely managing to stay inside of it.

“Excellent! That was an excellent tactic to get distance between you and me! Since I’m stronger than you you need to always have a certain distance so I can’t show my strenght to my full extent!”

Teruteru felt great during this training. They trained for hours and he finally felt like he found his own fighting style. He was even impressing Ishimaru, the master of the Hope’s Peak Dojo. He had to keep it up!

While he was sliding he quickly placed his hand on the ground, a wave of ice shootin over the ground towards Ishimaru who was so startled he couldn’t jump in time, his legs getting frozen on the spot with no chance of escaping. Taka growled as he squirmed and writhed, trying to get out of the ice, but he couldn’t do anyting. He was literally frozen to the spot.

He tried to find Teruteru who was currently twirling on the spot, ice forming underneath his feet, making him go higher, higher, higher, until he was basically as high as Chihiro was in the morning of yesterday, when they were training together. Even if Ishimaru could get out now, he would have a hard time reaching Teruteru. It’s not exactly easy to climb a tower of ice. The chef’s eyes were glowing a bright and ominous blue, his red scarf fluttering in the night-breeze, his uniform slightly rumpled and wet from the already hard training they went through. He sent a literal beam of ice towards him from an angle where he wouldn’t be able to dodge or reflect, Taka was only able to stare in shock as the beam made contact with his chest.

He felt cold. Like his heart was freezing. Then it felt like time froze with him. It wasn’t like he lost conciousness, more like the rest of the world stopped moving with him. But he knew that wasn’t the case. Teruteru just froze him in plain ice. He was just grateful no ice-raider was present. These guys can freeze you in everice, ice that is so strong it won’t melt and is as hard as diamond. That would be terrifying.

Teruteru jumped from his tower, the ice immediatly crumbling without him on top before sending the ice-block Ishimaru was in backwards with a swift kick, the ice sliding backwards until it was out of the ring and would announce Taka’s inevitable loss. The ice keeping the master prisoner gave in and Taka gasped as he fell to the ground, extending his hands to cushion his fall just in time. He was shivering violently and as pale as a sheet, recovering from the sheer overwhelming cold he just felt, Teruteru immediatly coming to his aid and throwing his arm over his shoulder, skating back to the door where the kitchen and bedrooms are, throwing the door open and entering the kitchen, placing him on one of the comfortable couches that were next to the dining tables, before hurrying and preparing hot water and then skating to Taka’s room to grab the thickest and flufffiest blanket he was able to find.

When he came back he wrapped Ishimaru in the blanket, who immediatly huddledd into it, a thankful grin on his trembling lips. “Th-thank-thank you, T-Teru!”

The chef only nodded, waiting for the water to boil, before quietly saying: “I’m sorry.”

Taka was recovering fast, the trembling in his words slowly subsiding, not like his shivering, as he passionately stated: “WH-What are you s-sorry for?! That w-was an amazing t-t-technique! I didn’t st-stand a chance! That was i-in-incredible!”

Teruteru hid the blush that developing with turning around and preparing a hot cup of tea for Ishimaru, careful to make it as good as possible before bringing it to the master of the dojo, paying close attention to not spill anything. He placed the warm mug into Taka’s shivering hands, who immediatly sighed in relief at the warm porcellain he was currently holding, smiling thankfully before blowing on the liquid inside of the mug and taking a light sip, feeling the warmth course through his body and waking him up from his frozen shock.

A few minutes of comfortable silence passed that Taka spent with warming up and Teruteru with cleaning the kitchen. The chef always hated it when the kitchen wasn’t in the best state it could be in. When you want to make good food the kitchen has to be clean and organized, that was what he always said.

“Teru, could you come over here for a moment?”

The chef was glad that Taka’s voice had stopped shaking, causing him to immediatly stop sharpening one of his favourite knifes, carefully placing it on the counter and saying that he would be there any moment. He skated over to Taka and looked at him with a slightky tilted head.

“How can I help you?”

The chef knew that Taka could see right through him. He may be a bit dense with many things, but when it was truly important, then the master always knew what was going on. He leaned back against the wall, huddled together in his blanket, even though he finally stopped shivering, finally asking:

“I want you to be completely honest with me. There was another reason you were so scared, wasn’t there?”

A bitter expression crossed the chef’s mind as he hissed quietly and actually walked over to a shelf where he picked up a carefully crafted envelope, throwing it in Taka’s general direction before crossing his arms and looking away. The master immediatly noticed how the ground around him began to freeze and how he began to fiddle with the comb that was usually in his pocket. It was just a matter of time until he would start to comb his hair.

Ishimaru picked up the letter. White paper, no seal, but carefully adressed to Teruteru Hanamura, Hope’s Peak Dojo, even his room-number was on it. He opened the already opened letter and pulled the single piece of paper inside of it out, reading it quietly to himself.

“Mr. Hanamura,

Greetings, I have been waiting for a long time to send this message to you, so I feel honored that you are finally reading it. You may have heard of me, but it doesn’t matter, I shall introduce myself to you either way.

My name is Yutaka Teruya.

Now that this is behind us, I would suggest you immediatly pack your things and leave the dojo, since your services aren’t needed anymore. I wish you the best of luck for the rest of your journey, but your time in Hope’s Peak Dojo is over. I want to see you leave this night, if you haven’t done that until then you leave me no other choice but to come in here and chase you away mysellf. I hope you understand that my intentions are pure and are ready to cooperate.

Sincerely, Yutaka Teruya.”

Taka stared at the letter for a long time, not able to understand what exactly that Yutaka person was trying to say. He held the letter up for Teruteru to see, confusion evident on his sharp face as he asked:

“Teruteru…. what is this?”

The chef grit his teeth in anger as he threw his hands in the air and ranted: “Yutaka Teruya is one of the most well-known chef’s in all of japan! But he doesn’t do anything with his talent! Everything he does is scare chefs away that work at a place for some time and replace them with his own work! ONLY TO LEAVE A WEEK LATER! But the chef’s that worked there before are never found again by the owners of the places, they probably already moved on to a different town after being humiliated by Teruya.”

Taka stared at the chef for a long moment, before finally concluding what Teruteru was trying to say to him: “…You are afraid Teruya will replace you.”

The chef flinched at the words, but the fact that he looked guiltily to the side and began to absentmindedly comb his pompadour gave away that it was the truth. Taka immediatly got up, the blanket abandoned behind him as he put his hands on Teruteru’s shoulders, confirming: “Teruteru… that will never happen. You make the best food I have ever tasted and you are our friend….” He smiled softly as he added: “I also made you a promise.”

The chef looked up at Taka, squinting slightly, an unconvinced expression on his chubby face. “You’re still thinking about this promise?”

Taka grinned, showing his blindingly bright teeth as he put a hand on Teruteru’s head, his little chef’s head falling ot the ground with a soft thud.

“I DID promise you that you are allowed to stay until you are ready for the next competition, so you can finally start your career.” 

Teruteru had a shaky smile on his face as he confirmed: “You… did promise that…”

Taka nodded, a determined expression on his face when he said: “So don’t you dare pack your things up! When this guy shows up, we will handle it together alright? This is why you trained, right? You want to defeat him in a battle? Don’t worry, Teru. You got this.”

The chef looked at Taka’s undoubting unwavering gaze for a long time before smiling again, his small eyes slowly closing as he repeated Taka’s words for himself again.

“Yes…. I got this…”


	6. Yutaka

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoy this weekly chapter. It was very fun to write! Comments are like always greatly appreciated since they keep me motivated to continue this story! Enjoy ^^

After their nightly training session, the chef and master went finally to bed, sleeping for a few more hours before getting up like everyone else, with Ishimaru’s slightly belated wake-up call. As he was banging the gong loudly curses echoed through the dojo, accompanied by some dull thuds that concluded that either Mondo or Leon fell out of their bed’s. Personally, taka only felt a little tired, the trained drained him off his energy fairly quickly and the power nap he took helped him to regain his power’s. He wouldn’t train at his full ability today however, he had no intention of collapsing, right after recovering from a rather major injury and being frozen on the spot.

Chihiro was the first to appear, making a little skip over the doorstep before looking at Ishimaru with a smile. “Good morning!” They said, a light blush on their cheeks as they greeted their good friend happily. Ishimaru smiled just as brightly as he raised his hands so they were at the height of his head as he responded: “Good morning Chihiro! You look like you had an excellent rest! Let’s try our hardest today!”

The smaller one immediatly nodded and ran to the storage room at the side of the dojo, getting a few training dummies out they could test their electric powers on.

Before Chihiro was finished, Teruteru rubbed his small eyes and yawned loudly, his usual pompadour tied back into a long ponytail, keeping all the hair out of his face, his favourite small chef’s head actually ON his head for once. He clearly couldn’t bother to style his hair today, but Ishimaru thought that it suited Teruteru rather well.

“Good morning Teru! I hope the rest of the night wasn’t too hard for you! I like the ponytail, it’s a good way to train without getting hair in your way!”

The chef looked at Taka in surprise, a slight blush grazing his cheeks as he smiled brightly: “Thank you very much Taka! But I must say you are looking rather handsome yourself today, just like every day! How about we cook something together this afternoon, after we take care of the pest invading our dojo?”

Taka’s eyes widened at the words, quickly understanding what the chef was talking about. “You think Teruya will come today?”

The chef nodded with a grim expression on his face, explaining: “I got the letter yesterday in the morning. He wanted me to leave the dojo by yesterday, he probably is already outside and was waiting for me to come out. I’m certain he will come and try to get me out of here. But I won’t allow this.” 

Taka nodded, determination shining in his red eyes as he confirmed: “We won’t allow him to chase you away! You got this Teru, I know you can beat him! He may be a good cook, but you are a chef and an even better fighter than he could ever be!”

Teruteru smiled softly as he mumbled: “Thank you very much Taka…. I shall go to the kitchen now and prepare a lunch that will blow your panties off.”

Ishimaru will probably never understand why the chef was always talking in innuendos, but that was just how it was, so he wasn’t going to question it any longer. He probably had a reason, apart from being a pervert. …. Maybe not, but a little bit of faith never killed someone….. right? RIGHT?!

Teruteru immediatly disappeared into the kitchen, it wss nothing out of the ordinary, he was the only chef in the dojo, so he had the responsibility to keep all of them well fed and to make sure that they have more than enough fresh ingredients to cook the best food possible. Teruteru’s job was hard, there was certainly no doubt, but everyone could always see that.

The next one to come out was Leon, his hair an absolute complete mess and his eyes bleary, yawning loudly, showing the piercing he had in his tongue. “G’morning.” He slurred sleepily, strolling past Ishimaru after a quick fist-bump before strolling to Chihiro to wish them a good morning aswell and probably make a little warm-up to properly wake up. Leon was always a deep sleeper, even more so than Mondo, which was impressive on and off itself, but the redhead finally managed it to get up with the wake-up call, so that was at least something.

Mondo was the last one to leave the dojo, probably due to the fact that he always tried to style his usual ridiculoud pompadour that needed way too much time to take care of.

“Good morning kyoudai! Let’s try our hardest today!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever the fuck.” The man grumbled as he strolled past Ishimaru, stretching his muscles carefully, making sure every muscle got properly stretched to avoid any injuries.

“Language!” He scolded loudly after his bro, before watching the three trainee’s socializing while doing their stretches or other wake-up routines. While that was happening he could hear the pots and pans clinking and clanking in the kitchen, the chef busy with preparing a little breakfast to last them to lunchtime, which he had to prepare carefully. Teruteru would be busy today, especially if the chef was rigth and Yutaka Teruya will really appear at their dojo today. It seemed so surreal. A chef that chased other chef’s away, only to disappear again… and the chef’s hurry up to leave the town as fast as possible. Something was seriously wrong with this person and he would give them a good lecturing once they come through these doors and try to kick Teruteru out of this dojo!

 

As it turned out, he didn’t even have to wait until lunch for him to appear. He had to admit, he didn’t look like he expected him to look like, with his smooth black hair that reached his chin and scorching pink eyes like cotton-candy was trapped inside of them. He had smooth but pale skin, his big hands clasped together, showing off the green nailpolish he was currently wearing. He was wearing a comfortable dark-green kimono for travelling and had an unpleasant smile on his face.

Ishimaru, who had been training with Chihiro at the moment, immediatly turned when he heard the doors to the dojo opened, his red orbs immediatly squinting when he saw the person entering. Normally he would have assumed that this person wanted to train here, maybe stay for a little while, but he knew better. He was certain that this was Yutaka Teruya, the chef that travels around and chases other chef’s away. And he was here to chase Teruteru away.

Yutaka looked around, an unimpressed expression on his face, waiting until Mondo and Leon interrupted their training to look at him aswell, annoyed expression’s on their faces as they looked at him. Mondo rolled his eyes after some seconds and just grumbled loudly: “When you wanna train then get out of this crap and put on some clothing that allows you to move like a normal fucking person.”

“Language!”

Taka immediatly scolded before turning back to Yutaka, a slightly forced grin on his face as he greeted: “Welcome to the Hope’s Peak Dojo! I’m Kyiotaka Ishimaru, the master of this fine building! Who do I have the honor of meeting here?”

The person still looked around, not bothering to shake Ishimaru’s outstretched hand or to return the pleasant smile. He simply asked: “Do you earn much with this place?”

Taka blinked in bewilderment while Mondo growled and Leon yelled: “Hey, the least you can do is being polite! He IS the master for a reason, ya know?!”

Taka raised a hand to get Mondo and Leon to be quiet, the two so surpised by the gesture that they actually fell silent, deciding to observe the situation instead. Chihiro quickly ran towards them, every step in the dirt audible by a slight crunch, their training-skirt with shorts underneath fluttering lightly before standing on their tippy-toes and asking onto Leon’s ear: “Who is that guy?”

Leon squinted at the man for multiple seconds, trying to dig in his memory if Taka expected visitors today or if he has seen the man before, finally shaking his head as he said: “No idea. But I doubt he is here for training.”

Mondo tried to keep his voice as low as possible despite his nervousness, he was still rather loud as he announced: “Taka doesn’t like this guy. Just look at him. For some reason kyoudai holds a grouch against him.”

It was true, Taka’s eyes were intense and completely focused on him, observing his every move, not letting his guard down, the fist that wasn’t outstretched was clenched, his muscles were tense and his posture was even more perfect than usually, making him look taller than he actually is. Taka was bad at hiding it when he didn’t like certain people, which showed right now.

Yutaka still didn’t look impressed and only bothered to glance at the three trainee’s for a moment before asking: “I assume Mister Hanamura already left his work-space and made room for me to attend my duties in the future?

The arrogance of that guy. Taka couldn’t believe it.

He didn’t have time to answer though, because in that moment the door’s to the kitchen slammed open, a cloud of steam coming out, Teruteru in a silhouette visible. The steam he was clouded in immediatly began to freeze up, giving everything a chilly atmosphere and causing Chihiro to shiver. The chef looked angry, his pupils like pinpoints, his geeth clenched, his muscles tense, a vein in his head threatening to pop. In his hand he was holding a frying pan with scrambled eggs and in the other one…. mashed potatoes? Taka wasn’t too sure, but he knew for sure that Teruteru wouldn’t take the audacity of this guy. Not in a million years.

Yutaka smiled unpleasantly, knowing from the very beginning that Teruteru was still in the kitchen, before greeting the chef: “Ah, Mister Hanamura, a truly perfect timing. We were just talking about you and when you would leave this dojo!”

Leon’s eyes went wide as he yelled: “What?! Why the hell is Teru leavin the dojo?!”

“I’m not.” “He isn’t.” Came the answers from Teruteru and Taka at the same time, causing Chihiro to sigh in relief. They knew the chef now for a year, they found a liking to him, they wouldn’t want him to just go and be replaced by this douchebag.

Yutaka raised an eyebrow, clearly not amused about the answer as he said: “Surely you must admit that my cooking abilities are extraordinaire. I am also a trustworthy person! Wouldn’t you want this dojo to continue with the best person for the job?”

He had to duck when Teruteru threw the, what Taka now recognized, vanille-pudding in his hand and actually managed to hit him in the face, despite the ducking. Mondo and Leon snickered at the sight and even Chihiro snorted while Taka smiled in satisfaction.

Teruteru clenched his teeth as he yelled: “Trustworthy? I WOULDN’T EVEN LET YOU SUCK MY DICK! AND I WOULD LET A CAT DO THIS!”

Yutaka clenched his teeth to as he asked in a dangerously low voice: “Do you think you are better than ME?!”

Teruteru threw the pan on the ground, the eggs flying into the air before landing again, surprisingly all of them inside the pan, as he announced: “I KNOW I’m better than you!”

The chef made a jump down the stairs before skating onto the battlefield, until he was in front of Yutaka, who was hovering dangerously over the chef, who didn’t even flinch, his gaze as hard as iron.

Taka made sure to stand between the two as he said: “Enough! We are deciding this over an official battle! Everyone to their respective positions!”

The two were still glaring at each other for a few more seconds before both turned unceremonly around, Teruteru’s scarf fluttering in the wind as he got out his comb, attempting to comb through his pompadour, only to find that there was literally nothing to comb through since everything was in a ponytail. How frustrating.

After the two found their way to their sides of the field and Mondo, Chihiro and Leon sat down at the edge to watch everything happening, Taka stood tall and proud nearby at the position of the judge, announcing the rules: “This will be a 1 vs. 1 battle. The person who manages to kick the other person out of the circle wins the battle, it is allowed to use the respective power’s of the fighter’s soul, however, heavy injuries as well as psychological damage are forbidden and will immediatly result in a loss from the assaulting side. Is everything clear?”

“Clear.”Answered both of them, their gazes not wavering when they stared at each other. Taka glanced from one to the other before slowly raising his arm and announcing: “Let the battle… BEGIN!” He dropped his arm in one swift motion, it didn’t even take a second before thorny vines shot out of the ground and tied Teruteru’s ankles up, letting him dangle over the ground, his arm’s not able to touch the ground. The chef squirmed, the blood slowly flowing into his head while Yutaka laughed, apparently convinced that he would win this competition.

It was true, Yutaka was known for winning every single battle against chef’s and chasing them away, but Teruteru was convinced that it woul be different today, that he would end Yutaka’s winning streak, defeat him in a battle and chase him away from the dojo, defend his territory and make his family proud of him for a change. He wouldn’t lose to Yutaka.

Problem was just that he was currently in a very bad position and wasn’t exactly able to squirm out of the vines. Also the thorns dug into his ankles through the shoes he was wearing and it hurt quite a lot. He could even feel blood slowly beginning to flow.

He continued to squirm, even when Yutaka slowly set him back, apparently ready to drop him out of the ring, but Teruteru was having none of it and tried to bend upward to touch the vines, succeeding after a few tries and causing the vines to immediatly freeze and the frozen parts to break apart. Teruteru quickly turned in the air and landed with both feet on the vine, immediatly sprinting towards Yutaka, the vine underneath his feet freezing and breaking apart.

Yutaka clenched his teeth and send another vine towards Teru to grow through him or push him back but one skilled jump later was enough for him to land on the other vine and continue running, cheering from Mondo, Leon and Chihiro audible as he made his way over to Yutaka. Teruteru was determined to land at least one punch against him, already reeling back, only to meet Yutaka’s knuckles in the middle who had also reeled back to land a punch. Teruteru’s arm was immediatly covered in thorny vines while Yutaka’s was freezing up, both their eyes widening as both retreated their arm’s and took multiple steps back, Teruteru forced to jump off the vine with a little flip before retreating.

Yutaka summoned vines who crushed the ice brutally while Teruteru froze the vines, both looking at each other with a hostile expression. Before the chef could move away five large vines shot out of the ground, apparently with the intention to either crush him or tie him up. But Teruteru could only grin as he quickly began to skate out of the way, all 5 vines missing him as they slammed into the place where he was standing not a long while ago, causing Yutaka to clench his teeth again and to summon more vines to get the chef, who had mastered the technique of ice-skating and skillfully dodged all of them, resulting in the vines slowly getting tied up in itself and not being able to grow any more to finally get the chef. When the giant knot of vines fell to the ground Teruteru jumped up the giant knot, making flips and spins before bowing elegantly down on top like a true ice-skater.

This didn’t sit well with Yutaka as he let the vines Teruteru was standing on rot and immediatly fall apart, only to be replaced by more vines who trapped Teruteru in a ball of vines and thorns, in the middle of the air, the chef not visible anymore. Yutaka grinned widely, causing Kiyotaka to squint. His teeth were strangely sharp… He couldn’t focus on that though, because the ball of vines froze over in that moment and Teruteru broke the top off to jump out before skating along the vines and making his way over to Yutaka one again, jumping from vine to vine and shooting icicles in his direction which got blocked off by vines nearby the man that slapped the icicles away. Yutaka grinned once again, his eyes beginning to glow in a scary pink, his hands slowly raising as if he was trying to summon something.

Teruteru on the other hand immediatly stopped his skating, small eyes widening, pupils shrinking as he screamed in pain, falling off the vine and writhing and squirming in pain as Taka’s eyes widened. What was Yutaka doing?! He couldn’t disqualify him just yet, he didn’t know what was happening, but it was strange for Taka to think about it. He had obviously earth-powers with plant-tendencies, these powers usually don’t affect the human body directly, unless….

Taka immediatly rose his arms, yelling: “THIS BATTLE IS CANCELLED!”

Mondo looked at Taka’s concerned and almost scared expression with confusion and concern of his own while Chihiro and Leon got up, apparently ready to break the two fighters apart. “What’s wrong Taka?! What is going on?!”

Taka observed how small little flowers and vines seemed to spread out of Teruteru’s bloodstreams, the flowers red like his aura and blood, the vines slowly rendering him immobile as he was lifted off the ground from a lager vine from Yutaka who grinned at Kyiotaka knowingly.

Teruteru didn’t move, he had a distant, defeated expression on his face, obviously fighting with the pain he was currently feeling.

Taka pointed at the man with the black hair and pink eyes, screaming: “THIS MAN IS NO MAN! IT’S A RAIDER!”

The moment Taka spoke those words loud laughter echoed through the dojo as Yutaka slowly began to lose his human looks, black petals growing out of his hair, his body growing, thorns becoming visible, eyes now completely glowing pink, no pupils visible anymore.

The creature continued to grow until it was just a giant rose with thorny vines like the tentacles of an octopus, eyes glowing ominously.

“I have to admit, I didn’t expect you to find it out so suddenly.”

Spoke the creature, it’s voice still resembling Yutaka’s, but it sounded distorted and alien, not human anymore.

“I have my experience with raiders.”

Answered Taka as nonchalant as possible, even though his muscles were tensed as his gaze like iron.

Yutaka laughed an ugly laugh, not fazed at all by the potential threat that Taka, Mondo, Leon and Chihiro would give it as it mocked: “Too bad that it won’t help you anymore. I already have what I wanted.”

It’s gaze turned to look at the suffering chef, Leon’s eyes narrowing as he asked: “You wanted Teru?”

Yutaka laughed, an ugly sound coming from a giant plant-monster like this. Why did he show his true colours? He could have denied it, maybe even hid it. Or he knew that the others would trust Ishimaru blind and therefore didn’t even bother.

“Of course I wanted him. He is a 3 Star Chef for a reason, isn’t he? I always go after chef’s.”

Ishimaru’s eyes widened in realization as he concluded: “The chefs you chased away always disappeared not even a day after….”

The rose laughed once more, one vine shooting forward to pat Ishimaru on the head, every single vine trembling with laughter as it answered: “Not bad for figuring it out! I was lucky that Yutaka Teruya of all people ran into me. The famous chef.”

Chihiro looked at the raider with wide eyes, asking: “So you stole Yutaka and became him and then travelled around the world to find good chef’s so you don’t lose your humanity?!”

“Ding ding, 100 points, good job little jerbal thing. Sadly you won’t be ably to make the world a better place after I am done with every one of you. I have never found a chef whose fighting abilities were as far advanced as this one, especially have I never met one with ice-abilities, something I was always interested in. I think I will switch bodies. To have a fresh new start you know? I mean, Hanamura DOES mean field of flowers, so who is better suited for me than THE Teruteru Hanamura?”

Mondo moved forward to intervene, worried for his friend, but Taka’s outstretched arm stopped him from entering the battefield, causing the stronger one to stop abruptly, looking at Taka in surprise, yelling: “Kyoudai, wha-”

He stopped when he saw how determined Taka looked. His muscles were tense, his gaze intense, but he remained completely calm, replying to Mondo with a solid voice, not a single tremble audible: “He got this Mondo.”

Mondo was flabbergasted at those words, staring at Taka in disbelief. Did he missed some intense bonding moment between these two or something else very important that Taka refused to help Teruteru right now, even though he was about to be destroyed by a raider?! Leon looked just as surprised while Chihiro looked in worry up at Teruteru whose flowers began to get bigger, as if the vines were now flowing through his veins instead of actual blood, he got paler by the second.

“Ishimaru…. are you sure?”

Taka didn’t even look away, he kept focused on Teruteru, waiting for a few seconds before finally nodding and saying: “He got this.”

Yutaka moved closer to Teruteru, it’s giant petals parting to reveal a maw, empty and waiting to be fed. All four of them gasped when Teru got dropped into the maw, a giant tongue making a slurping sound when it was finally fed, the maw closing, apparently satisfied with the meal it received, causing it to grow bigger for a very brief moment, almost moaning as it said: “AH. I feel the POWER!”

It was true, mere seconds later the body inside the giant plant, Teruteru, began to glow ominously blue, the eyes clearly visible through the green body of the plant, the plant itself slowly retreating back into Teruteru’s body, it was changing, it abandoned Yutaka Teruya, ot became Teruteru, this wasn’t good.

“Kyoudai…” Growled Mondo, ready to step in. Taka’s teeth were clenched, just like his fist, but he growled out a quiet: “Not yet.”

“We can’t wait any longer Taka!” Said Leon, who was ready to sprint towards Yutaka and Teruteru to sucker punch the shit out of that plant, but Chihiro held him back from doing just that and probably getting himself killed.

The plant almost completely vanished, safe for 4 long thorny vines that were growing out of Teruteru’s back, just like a pink bud that apparently tried to blossom with all it’s power. Teruteru exhaled deeply, moving his head body, bones occasionally cracking and protesting with the new vines inside of the body.

When the chef opened his eyes, they were the same bright pink Yutaka used to have, it looked completely wrong and unwated on the chef, the same unpleasant smile grazing his features as he asked: “So… I assume this is it then? I will kill you, take your humanity and then move on, so no one can babbel out my little secret? What a shame… I hoped it would be a little bit more interesting, but if you refuse to defend yourself, then there is nothing I can do.”

Ishimaru shook his head slowly as he tried to take deep breaths. It was hard to lose someone to a raider. A grin slowly formed on his face. Good for them that they didn’t lose Teruteru to a raider though.

“What are you laughing about?!” Asked the raider, confusion evident in it’s voice as it stared at the four remaining people that lived in the dojo. It’s muscles began to cramp, slowly but surely, the vines twitching anxiously while the bud on the back began to wilt, causing it to widen it’s eyes, screaming, even though it sounded more like the shriek of a banshee as it fell to it’s knees, tearing at it’s hair as it’s veins seemed to fill with eyes, they were glowing underneath the skin and freezing the vines off.

“WHAT IS HAPPENIIIIIING?!” Shrieked the raider, trying to move like it normally would, but it was just too cold to properly move, it felt like sleeping over the winter and not waking up any more, it needed to get out, but the body now felt like a prison instead of a home. It couldn’t get out but it was way too cold to stay inside!

Taka’s smirk turned into a full blown grin as he said, his hands at the level of his head as if greeting a guest at a dinner-party, a smug undertone in his voice: “I thought you as a raider would know this! Raiders like you, whose bowers are based on plants and flowers, need to be careful of who to take over! It’s no problem when you just take their humanity but stealing the body when the person has a fire or ice soul is impossible for someone like you. Plants and fire or ice just don’t get along!”

It’s mouth opened to a scream, but no sounds escaped, it’s nails digging into the dirt as it fought against the ice freezing it’s heart and system, growling lowly as he said: “You knew about this. You knew I would die when I would pursue my plan.”

Taka shook his head lightly when he confirmed with a laugh: “I knew from the very beginning that a raider had to be involved in all of this! The moment I heard that the chef’s you challenged disappeared, I knew that something was wrong! But I’m very glad that you are a plant-raider, that meant that none of us needed to interfere. Just like I said. Teruteru got this!”

“D….Dammit.” spat the raider, it’s eyes now shining in a light purple, the pink and blue clashing with each other, before the raider finally managed to break out of the back with a loud shriek, trying to get away before completely frozen, screaming like a banshee as it cursed: “DAMN YOU ALL! YOU SHALL ROT IN HELL, FOREVER AS AN UNLOVED RAIDER!”

It tried to get away, but the ice followed it, freezing it’s base and crawling upward like a disease before finally freezing it with one last screech, the heavy sculpture falling to the ground and shattering into thoughsands of pieces before melting in the light of the sun, wetting the first underneath Teruteru and the now dead Yutaka.

Teruteru fell to the ground, gasping loudly as he struggled with the pain he was currently feeling, his back automatically closing again despite the pain. He wasn’t bleeding and he seemed to be fine, just shook, his arm and legs still bleeding from the thorns, Mondo immediatly coming to lift him up like the tiny potato he actually way, asking: “Hey man, are you okay?”

Teruteru had a smile on his face as he responded with a slight blush on his face: “In the arms of such a strong man as you…. how could I not be fine, it feels like heaven.”

Mondo rolled his eyes as he said: “You earned yourself this comment, next time I will punch you in the face.”

Chihiro already hurried to the doors to hold them open for Mondo while Leon began to fuss over the injured chef, asking if he was okay or if he was in any pain, to which Teru just cuddled into Mondo’s chest and didn’t say anything, apparently just right where he was right now.

When Mondo passed Taka, the chef and master exchanged a glance, Taka having a proud smile on his face as he said: “I told you that you got this, my friend.”

Teruteru smiled too, taking for a moment the outstretched hand Taka had offered him, their fingers intervining for a little moment as he responded: “I never had any doubts in your assumption. You are never wrong after all, my friend.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Go talk to me on https://www.tumblr.com/blog/shsl-askee


	7. Rumors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit shorter than the others, it's also more of a hint of what's to come, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. Comments would be super appreciated, they would keep my morale high despite the truly stressful times, so please, it doesn't take long.

“Taka, why are we going into the village today? Wouldn’t it be better if we stayed with Teru and supported him in any way we can?” Chihiro was trying to walk beside Ishimaru, but the master was a fast walker and Chihiro had to almost jog to keep next to their friend, his red eyes focused ahead, only briefly glancing to the brunette next to him before he responded:

“Teru isn’t going to do anything today, apart from resting. He got actually possessed from a raider. Even though his soul managed to fight it off, it left him weakened and powerless.”

Chihiro’s eyes widened at Taka’s words, making a little skip to avoid tripping over a rock, asking in surprise: “Powerless? What do you mean?”

The master glanced briefly at Chihiro again, their curious expression causing a small smile to surface as he actually slowered his steps so the smaller brunet could walk normally instead of speed-walking next to Taka.

“It means that the raider has also weakened the soul. It takes time to recover. You can live without a soul but not without a body. That’s why the body is recovering first and then the soul will heal. So Teruteru will probably be powerless for a couple of days. It depends on his willpower and the way we will have him gracefully avoid any trouble.”

Chihiro giggled slightly as they asked with a mischievous expression: “Can Teru even be graceful without his ability to ice-skate?”

Taka snorted at the question, his lips and brows twitching before answering: “With his skating he is like Yuri on Ice, but without it… I have seen kittens move more gracefully.”

The two dorks giggled a bit more about the clumsiness of their 3 friends in the dojo and about the fact that Mondo buried Leon in a hole on the battlefield, the others only waking up because the redhead was screaming like a banshee. That was…. a chaotic but fond memory. Chaotic good memory.

The market was relatively full with people buzzing around like bees everywhere, most of them women trying to get good ingredients for lunch and dinner to feed their hungry families. Taka looked down at Chihiro for a moment, a satisfied expression on his face when he realized that they were neither overdressed nor looked like rats that were just picked out of the sewers. Chihiro wore a decent button-up green shirt with a black knee-long skirt and white socks, the ballerinas they were wearing black. They looked very cute. Taka on the other hand wore sneakers, which was rare in and of itself, but also had to borrow Leon’s clothes, because Taka is a loser who never goes out in the real world and therefore doesn’t have any clothes for the market of the village.

The two didn’t plan to do anything exciting today, nothing special was going on in town, so the two of them just planned to get the stuff Teruteru needs, maybe listen to some news and then head back. It was easy to dodge the women with their children, both apologizing whenever they accidentally grazed a mother or pushed a child to the side . They just wanted some food for dinner, they were sorry!

When they finally reached the stand of their choice Taka tried to lean as casually as possible against the slightly wet wood, his muscles stiff but his smile pleasant as he greeted one of his friends: “Naegi! How great it is to see you!”

Makoto Naegi, one of the first ever trainees in Hope’s Peak Dojo, was small boy with wild brown hair, one strand refusing to stay down, his face young and energetic, brown eyes observant and unafraid, at least when Taka didn’t bring Mondo along.

Today seemed to be a good day though, Makoto was energetic and had to stand on a stepladder to look over the stand, just like always. “Ishimaru! How great to see you again! And I see you brought Chihiro today!” The small teens beamed at each other with Chihiro waving slightly, Makoto having a small and kinda dumb grin on his face.

Taka grinned as he answered: “I obviously did since you can see them before your very eyes! How is Kirigiri doing? And your job, is it bearable, I know it wasn’t your first choice.”

Makoto still smiled pleasantly as he prepared Taka’s usual orders, searching for all the things he needed while explaining: “Oh, Kyoko’s great! She and Byakuya are currently out of town on some mission so I have to keep an eye on the village. Raider-activity is unusally high for these past few days.”

Chihiro blinked, a deadpan expression on their face as they answered: “We noticed.”

Makoto shot the smaller teen a quick glance, his gaze questioning but no words escaping his lips, cuaisng him to turn back around. Taka observed the younger one, wondering like every day why Makoto left the dojo to work here as a salesman, selling vegetables and meat and hoping people would come to his stand instead of all the other one’s with probably more experienced salesmen, not that it was going to discourage Makoto. Taka knew that Makoto was part of a secret organization and that he only joined the dojo because he needed to make sure that no uprising was planned, but the master also knew that Makoto enjoyed his time and became exceptionally stronger during his time in the dojo and even impressed his partners, Byakuya Togami and Kyoko Kirigiri, with the way he fought after the 3 months he spent with them. He was even able to control his soul, a porcupine, and protect both of them, with which both of them were impressed and very pleased with.

But Makoto has a family to feed, his mom and dad are earning barely enough and his sister is going to school, so he has to stay in the village and work while Kyoko and Byakuya go on missions from the secret organisation. It wasn’t exactly fair, which both of them were aware of, but that was life…. everything but fair.

The salesman glanced at both of them again before asking: “Is everything going alright at the dojo? The raider-activity is very high as you already know… I’m a bit worried about you guys.”

Chihiro eyed the stand down the street where a woman currently tries to get some apples as they explained: “We got attacked by 2 raiders so far this week. A big but inexperienced earth raider with poison attacks and a strong plant raider which Teruteru was able to beat.”

Makoto’s eyebrows vanished in his hairline as he asked: “Teru beat a strong raider?! I thought he wanted to be a cook?”

Taka shook his head slightly, a defeated expression on his face as he emphasized: “….PLANT raider, Naegi.”

The smaller one’s eyebrows pulled together for a moment as he puzzled together what the master was talking about before his eyes widened in shock.

“No way. Is he okay?! Is he in pain? Do you need some medicine for him?!”

Taka was quick to reassure the worried friend, raising his hands as if to calm a startled animal, speaking almost too quickly: “Do not worry! He feels a lot better now! It happened yesterday, so his body already had a bit of time to recover! He is still weak though and probably will stay in bed for a while, but Mondo and Leon are taking care of him!”

Makoto’s eyebrows pulled together again and he responded in a deadpan voice while putting everything they wanted to buy on the counter: “….This honestly terrifies me even more.”

Chihiro and Taka chuckled at the response, the taller one picking the two bags up and handing one, the slightly lighter one, to Chihiro, who was happy to help. They would have just felt bad if Taka carried all of them while they walked alongside him with nothing at all.

Makoto’s weak smile fell off his face as a serious expression replaced it, speaking in a slightly lower voice to alert no one else: “Please take care of yourselves…. Kyoko and Byakuya alerted me of the fact that a very strong raider seems to be heading this way.”

Both member’s of the dojo stood completely still as they digested this information, Chihiro making themselves as small as possible while every muscle in Taka’s body tensed, his natural sense of danger activating and preparing him for easier fighting or fleeing.

“What…. what do you mean?”

Asked the smallest one with wide eyes, a slight shiver going through them. They didn’t want to fight any more raiders, they didn’t want their friends to get into any more danger, especially their soulless friends… Teru was only able to fend the raider off because his soul was conveniently made of ice…. if that wouldn’t have been the case… Teruteru might be gone… just like this.

Makoto nodded, the dark expression on his face spreading and casting a slight shadow over his eyes as he told them what he heard from Kyoko and Byakuya.

“Apparently it’s gigantic, over 100 feet tall, and it looks like a giant bunny or rabbit with brown fur and white aspects. It has long arms and legs and wears purple silk-pants or something of the kind. And it’s strong! It leaves destruction wherever it goes, the only thing that get’s spared are the animals. And it can’t be killed, because it always has potentially soulless hostages with it. And it was already sighted at different places, if it keeps it’s current route, then it’s going to come this way….”

This sounded…. insane. A raider that’s 100 feet tall, maybe even taller?! How can a raider become this big! It’s usually the big raiders that don’t survive very long, because they get often killed by human’s with souls before they can even attack someone. The smaller one’s are very dangerous, because they aren’t too obvious. There are even raiders that disguise as cute puppies to lure children or naive adults. But a gigantic kinda anthropomorphic bunny? That sounded completely insane.

And yet, Makoto told them just that story which is apparently true since Kyoko and Byakuya are currently hunting this raider that seems to be just appearing and disappearing at will, and they never make stories like that up, they are reliable and trustworthy, even if sometimes a little rude, people, so Taka believed them. It just sounded completely insane. He had to ask his soul in his dreams about this, maybe it had some informations, even though the doubt it wasn’t actually his soul and just a dream, still lingers, but he wants it to be his soul, he wants it so much…

Taka nodded, serious determination shining in his piercing red eyes as he responded: “Thank you very much for the warning, Naegi! We will certainly stay alert and make sure no one goes out alone!.”

Chihiro nodded in confirmation, continuing: “These are dangerous times for every one of us…. we need to look out for each other….”

Makoto had a solemn expression on his face as he studied the very unineresting counter he was working on instead of his friends faces as he responded: “Indeed… I’m a bit scared, all on my own, without Kyoko or Byakuya… My parents aren’t fighters and Komaru may be training with Toko but so far she showed no signs of having a soul…. what am I supposed to do if something happens?”

Taka didn’t say anything, just stared at Makoto until the smaller one decided to look up, red locking with brown, a spark between them exchanged, as he reassured: “You have our numbers. Call us. We will come and help. Mondo is quick, he can be there in mere minutes. You aren’t alone Makoto. We will always support you. And Toko is currently living with you guy’s, isn’t she?”

Makoto only nodded, a kinda dumb expression on his face. It was true, Toko Fukawa was part of the secret organisation, but she was currently on no mission, which is why she spents her time at Makoto’s home, where Komaru, Makoto’s little sister, found a big liking to her and vice versa. The two are almost always together, it was actually pretty cute, and Toko even tried to train Komaru, because she showed no powers so far and Toko didn’t feel comfortable with leaving her alone if she has to go on a mission some time. Komaru make’s progress, certainly becomes more agile and a bit stronger, but she still hasn’t showed any signs of a soul, which concerns Toko and Makoto. They weren’t people who despise the soulles, certainly not, they were just worried that Komaru would get snatched by a raider and would be incapable of defending herself… that would be terrible.

Taka began to smirk slightly as he continued: “See? Toko will help you. She is very strong and you know that! She is ready to knock herself out so her other persona can murder everything that threatens your or your familie’s life!”- He opened his eyes again, his smirk reducing itself into a smile- “And you are strong too. So don’t worry so much. Caution is good, but if you don’t take any risks, then you are not living. I took a risk with opening a dojo and was lucky, you see?”

Makoto looked at Taka for a few more moments before nodding, a thankful smile on his soft face as he thanked Taka genuinly before finally waving both of them goodbye as the members of the dojo announced their leave and vanished in the crowd of people who were still trying to buy ingredients for lunch and dinner. The encounter helped Makoto get a bit more confidence, so he was able to continue his work without appearing too antsy or terrified, which a salesman should never look like, it’s not good for the business.

———

“Do you think Teru, Mondo and Leon are okay back at the dojo?” Chihiro asked, walking a bit faster to keep up with Taka, who had far less problems with carrying his bag back than Chihiro, who was walking a bit slower due to the added weight.

Taka thought about this question for a while, making Chihiro able to spot the slowly forming grin on his face and to observe the slightly shaking shoulders from supressed laughing.

“Oh, not at all. It will be chaos once we return.”

Chihiro’s eyebrows rose as they asked in genuine interest: “You think it will really be THAT bad?!”

Taka began to openly chuckle as they finally left the village, ready to return to the dojo and to take on the pretty long and hard path it takes to even reach their home.

“Trust me Chi: It will be even worse.”

———

“GET BACK HERE!”

Mondo yelled as he tried to catch Leon who was currently carrying Teruteru around like a sack of potatoes, insane laughter following the redhead wherever he went. Since Teru wasn’t able to cook and Mondo isn’t very good at it, Leon made an honest attempt at creating a meal and ended up putting way too much sugar in the pie he was trying to bake, resulting in him now running around in an insane sugarrush, Teruteru groaning slightly as he was getting sick from getting jostled around so much.

Leon would have almost been stopped by the bigger and stronger Mondo, but Leon made a skilled jump, landed on Mondo’s shoulders and jumped off again, continuing his run down the hall and causing Mondo to groan loudly as he tried to chase after the redhead, but it was simply impossible. Sugared up like this he had no chance of reaching him anytime soon. At least alone… He just hoped that Taka and Chihiro would be back soon before anything catches fire…. little did he know that the kitchen was about to catch fire because Leon left the oven and stove stupidly on in his attempt to cook and the meat he was making in a pan was long turned into a piece of charcoal… this was going to be hard to explain to Taka, they were gone for like 2 hours and the dojo was already in grave danger, what was wrong with them?!


	8. Giant Raider

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some new characters appear, hope you like it. If you like the story and want it to continue, please leave comment so I know people are actually reading this.

Looking out of the window was uninteresting, just like all the other times she did it, for all she can see is a vaste wasteland, little animals scurrying around to try and find food before disappearing into their holes again.

She sighed deeply, turning around as she got her long and silky lavender hair out of her braid and shook her head lightly to get everything in order before walking towards the two beds the owners of this Inn thankfully gave them.

The other person in the room, tall with long legs and shining blonde hair, was seated at the small table, one leg casually swung over the other as his blue eyes roamed over the book he was currently reading with apparently only mild interest, since his usual frown was even deeper than usually. It only took minutes in fact for him to groan in frustration and snap the book shut, the loud noise not startling the girl at all. Her beautiful amethyst-eyes merely shifted to the man next to her as he was throwing the rather thick piece of literature on the neatly made bed before grabbing his tea and taking a sip, not bothering to make sure that it was cold enough to drink.

“Didn’t find out anything?” Asked Kyoko Kirigiri, an interested expression on her face as she leaned forward, her elbows supporting the weight she put on them.

Byakuya Togami made a disapproving noise as he glared the book down, as if it had personally offended him and his family, before responding, his eyes not averting the book a single second: “I read almost the entire encyclopedia about raiders and souls, specifically bunnies and rabbits, but I found nothing about this creature we are currently trying to find! Not one. Single. Thing.”

This was obviously a very frustrating experience for the tall blonde since his name and honour was based on finding everything out and never failing, so his ego was even more bruised right now.

Kyoko tilted her head slightly, her eyebrows pulling together as her purple manicured nails were tapping against the wood of the table in a rhytmic pattern. She couldn’t imagine that nothing about this raider had been found out. It couldn’t be a completely new kind, could it? Raiders as big as this one were usually found and killed easy, since they were a big target and it wasn’t easy for it to dodge properly. How was it able to survive this long?

“What do you suggest we do about it? Should we try to kill it right here?”

Byakuya nodded as he arose from his chair, pacing around in an impatient fashion. Both of them haven’t yet changed into their nightgowns, instead they were comfortable but practical clothing which Taka gave them, claiming it’s not easy to rip it and it allows you to move as freely as possible with clothing, so it was perfect for training and hard fights, which they were sure would soon be taking place.

“If we aren’t able to find anything out about it, we need to get rid of it before it can cause any more damage. You know we can’t allow it to reach the village Makoto is in. This idiotic porcupine won’t be able to defend himself if that were to happen.”

Kyoko’s gaze casted downwards, observing the irregular pattern of the wood her fingers tapped against as she had to silently agree with Byakuya. She didn’t want the raider to reach this village, Makoto was there. And not only Makoto, Hope’s Peak Dojo was also residing there and as much respect as the agent had for Kyiotaka and his trainees…. they probably weren’t strong enough for this raider. Taka would probably run head-first into it and get killed, which she couldn’t allow. Everyone would be destroyed if Taka died…

Kyoko stood up from her chair, a serious expression crossing her stoic face as she asked: “What tactic do you suggest for this raider?”

Byakuya had taken up Kyoko’s previous space at the window, looking out of it suspiciously. When the raider was sighted the last time it was headed this way, so the two of them suspected that it should appear every second now, but it was strange… Raiders usually don’t just appear and disappear like that, they are still corporeal and can’t change their size, at least not if it’s not a usual power they have, and bunnies or rabbits usually have very high speed and jump-abilities, but not the powers to change size at will. She wondered if this creature really is a raider or if they are after something much bigger than a mere raider…

Kyoko got startled out of her thoughts by loud banging and rumbling outside, accompanied by flashes. Every normal human would have thought that a thunderstorm was raging outside, but Kyoko and Byakuya knew better and were immediatly on their toes, the blonde jumping out of the window onto the dusty ground, Kyoko right after him, looking around, eyes and ears on high alert. Where was it? Where would it be?

It was probably a hundred feet away which didn’t matter, because it was GIGANTIC! It was just as the rumors said, it seemed to touch the sky with it’s enormous ears, it really wore some kind of purple silk-pants, it’s arms were long and almost reached the ground, the face was mostly white with three horns on the forehead. It’s eyes were red, knowingly staring ahead and a purple scarf was wrapped around it’s neck, Accompanied by some kind of white chest-piece that protected chest and shoulders, the colour white with golden outlines and a red stomach protector. One could say it was completely dressed, which was strange for raiders since they looked more like animals when they haven’t taken over a human. And this creature did in fact look like an animal with the tips of the brown ears being white. One could almost say that it was beautiful.

It was currently headed towards them, it’s strides long and leaving huge dustlouds and footprints in it’s wake, animals feeping or scurrying away as they tried to hide or escape from the giant that casted an even bigger shadow due to the currently setting sun.

Byakuya took the jacket off he was wearing and rightened the glasses on his nose as his eyes began to glow like fire, his muscles twitching as he called upon the powers of his soul, a badger. Badgers may be small, but be damned if you underestimate them, these animals are powerful and the souls are just as scary.

Byakuya rose one of his feet and stomped the earth, a giant crack immediatly snaking it’s way to the giant, ready to engulf it and make it collapse into the earth so they can take it on head to head. Byakuya grinned smugly at the stupid creature in front of them, pleased with the fact that they can finally go home and enjoy dinner with Makoto’s family the next day, even though it was nothing compared to the good food he was used to.

That smug grin got wiped off his face as the crack suddenly seemed to close itself as soon as it reached the rabbit, all the way back to Byakuya who stared in disbelief. He could still see his crack, it just sloppily patched itself up with stones so the raider wouldn’t be in any danger, what the fuck was this shit?!

Kyoko seemed just as stunned, her gloved hand placed over her mouth. She didn’t expect this to be as easy as Byakuya thought it would be, but she didn’t expect this to happen. This raider didn’t look like an earth raider, it stroke Kyoko more as an air-type, but even so, how could it have closen itself? The raider made no indication of using it’s powers. It couldn’t be as powerful as being able to use it’s powers without even trying, could it?! No, that simply wasn’t possible! The creature was approaching quickly, even though it looked like it was just taking a nice little stroll.

When it was almost directly in front of them Kyoko’s powers activated in mere seconds, her eyes glowing an ominous purple as the wings on her back spread and her inner raven screeched. She made a jump and soared into the air so she was finally eye to eye with the raider and…. it looked completely non-threatening. It’s eyes were glistening and curious and it even tilted it’s head slightly, seemingly confused at the sudden attack.

Kyoko’s Aura surrounded her, she had just like Mondo an aura-soul, and shot her personified Aura towards the rabbit, expecting it to at least hit, not expecting a sudden barrier of water to form in front of the rabbit’s face and block her aura off, how was that possible?! Neither raiders nor souls can have two different kinds of powers!

Kyoko tried again, all of her feathers spreading as a barrage of aura-spheres were shot towards the rabbit, sphere after sphere, not intending to stop, but she was surprised once again when the water-barrier seemed to support a new crystal-barrier that was forming to protect the rabbit from Kyoko’s assault. The crystal barrier broke from Kyoko’s sheer force, but the water-barrier prevailed and got trappped in multiple crystals that now shot towards Kyoko and pierced through her wings, a loud screech audible when she was forced to land suddenly on the ground, barely able to support herself when she hit the ground hard, Byakuya immediatly by her side and forming a protective dome of rocks and earth so the rabbit wouldn’t squish them with it’s sheer power. It almost seemed like the rabbit was avoiding them though, it deliberately stepped over them and didn’t attack anything else, it seemed to just want to get out of this area. As soon as it reached the next forest which was pretty far away but it was still visible due to it’s sheer size, it vanished again.

“Something strange is going on with this raider.” Concluded Byakuya, now not only his pride but also his logic hurt. How could this raider beat both of them like it was not a problem at all?! They were well trained with strong souls, no raider could be able to beat them just like that! But this piece of shit rabbit just did it.

Unlike Byakuya, who was silently brooding over this loss, Kyoko immediatly got out her phone and dialed the one number that was on speed-call. After three rings the person she tried to reach finally picked up.

“Kyoko, is it you? What’s up? How did it go?”

“Makoto…” She immediatly answered, a bit out of breath due to the fight and the current pain she was feeling.

Makoto seemed to be jumping off something, presumambly the bed, his mother-hen mode activating as he asked in worry: “Are you okay?! You sound hurt! Did someone hurt you?! And what’s with Byakuya? Are you two okay?!”

“Just a little bruised.” Responded Kyoko to soothe the ruffled nerves of Makoto, who audibly sighed in relief, only to sound immediatly tense again as soon as he spoke the next words.

“Was it the raider?”

Kyoko nodded, despite Makoto’s inability to see it, taking a glance around herself. Byakuya seemed to be unhurt, apart from his ego, but that would heal and she would heal too, so there was no need to worry. “We are both okay. But You need to stay on alert. This raider is stronger than any of us expected. It had no problems to get past us.” 

She could basically see Makoto’s eyes getting bigger by the second, his voice stuttering as he tried to form a coherent sentence. She couldn’t blame the smallest one, Kyoko and Byakuya were strong, nothing could have just gone past them…. but it just happened, which is reason for worry.

“I will warn Hope’s Peak Dojo about this! Can you keep me updated on the issue so we know if we might have to fight?”

Kyoko nodded: “Excellent. Thank you Makoto. We have to pack now and try to follow the raider. It sseems to still be heading towards the village, so stay on guard.”

She then hung up the phone and walked towards Byakuya, placing a hand on his shoulder. This was a serious issue they couldn’t be pridehurt about. They needed to hurry up or this creature could cause serious harm, not only to their village, but also to innocent civilians…. And they couldn’t allow this.

\---------------------------  
The village has always been a peaceful place, apart from the usual raider that invaded, but the fighters that trained in the dojo and lived in their normal houses kept them at bay pretty well. Even if it was currently difficult since the amount of raiders rose to a never before seen number and the fighters weren’t enough to keep everything at bay. Thankfully no one has been seriously hurt so far and Komaru Naegi, Makoto Naegi’s little sister, would prefer it if it would stay that way.

She was currently preparing dinner for herself and her best friend, standing in the kitchen, the apron protecting her clothes from any oil or fat while pieces of meat were sizzling in the pan, slowly getting brown enough to eat for the two women.

While Komaru was cooking in the kitchen, Toko Fukawa was seated on the table, one leg swung over the other, her long hair loose and thouching the ground, her round glasses occasionally slipping to the tip of her nose as she was reading a book Komaru lent her since she was currently suffering from writers block. Toko was a famous, almost legendary, authour, especially famous for her romantic novels, novels that were usually either bought by middle-aged women or naive teenagers, but the author didn’t care about her demographic in the slightest. She created entire worlds in her heads and characters living in these worlds and being more successful than most people with their real life in their real worlds, all these people can burn in a fire for all she cared.

Her grey eyes casted upwards for a moment to take a long loog at Komaru, how she was slightly bent over to currently inspect the meat to make sure it wasn’t too done or too raw, she wanted to make them medium-rare, since both of them liked it best that way. Toko couldn’t help herself but smile softly. She wasn‘t used to such a warm environment, it was a nice change of pace, and she even lived with a person that tolerated and accepted, even liked her, just as she was. Makoto was a nice guy too, don’t get her wrong, she was just never able to…. make anything out of him. With Komaru it was a little easier, they could talk about books and good literature and Komaru’s optimistic view on life suited Toko’s personal needs better than Makoto’s naturally pessimistic perspective.

Toko was also not only a talented author, she was also a powerful fighter. Due to trauma she evolved a second personality, known as Genocide Jack, an even more powerful person since her character made it easy to kill, but she was even stronger than Toko because Jack fused with Toko’s soul, causing Jack to become her own soul with her own powers while Toko developed surprisingly new powers, since Jack took her old. She wasn’t complaining, far from it, she liked her new powers better, but it was still strange how everything played out in the end. Toko’s powers were more based on supporting other fighters while Jack was vicious and thirsty for blood, it was therefore like a spin on the roulette wheel which personality was more needed than the other and how each personality would react to any situation thrown at them. Jack’s reaction was mostly…. murder…. while Toko was actually a quick thinker, just dominated by panic which makes the decisions she makes not alwas the best, but they managed to get through everything so far.

Komaru was still wholly lacking of powers or a soul, something Toko didn’t like at all, especially with the new activity of raiders, which is why she was staying at Komaru’s place in the first place, to keep a better eye on her and her family and teach her how to defend herself despite the lack of soul. The author was already wondering if she should send Komaru to the dojo to train with other people, but she wasn’t too sure if that was truly the best move to make that decision, since almost all of these people are idiots, but also all of them are born males… she would have to see, maybe she comes with Komaru into the dojo for a while, even though no one would be there to protect the village apart from Makoto and AGH, too many problems and too many decisions to make at an hour to late to think about this kind of stuff!

When the author looked up again Komaru was already serving the meat with vegetables and mashed potatoes and walked over to the table, her socked feet making little noises on the tiled floor of the kitchen. Toko put a book-mark on the side she was currently reading before carefully closing the book and putting it aside to give her full attention to Komaru, not that Komaru needed it, because that. Woman. Talks. A lot. She could probably talk to a wall and the wall would excuse itself after some time. Toko was sometimes a bit overwhelmed, but found Komaru overall very intriguing. They were so different which made it so exciting.

“Sooooo, how do you think the book is Toko?!” Komaru asked in excitement, leaning slightly forward and supporting her slim figure with her elbows to prevent faceplanting into the food she made. Toko made a dismissive noise while eyeing the food suspiciously, even though there wasn’t going to be a doubt she was going to eat it, since Komaru’s food was pretty good. Not amazing, Teruteru was certainly better, but it was better than most of the things she was used to eating.

“I-It’s mediocre at best. I already spotted many mistakes and plot-holes I-I could correct in probably 10 minutes. The characters a-are kinda enjoyable though.”

Komaru flashed a bright grin before stabbing the poor meat on her plate with her fork, a satisfying sound audible when the fork pierced through the tender meat, some of the juices splashing out and landing on the plate the meat was rested on. “I knew a mediocre book would jog your creativity!”

Toko’s eyes actually widened at that statement and she stopped cutting her meat once she heard Komaru’s plan, staring at the younger woman in surprise: “Y-you gave me a mediocre book on p-purpose? To motivate me to w-write?”

Toko couldn’t help but smile slightly at this. Komaru just knew how to move her to do literally anything. Somehow this Naegi already got a pretty good idea of Toko’s AND Jack’s personality, it threw both of them completely off guard how cool Komaru was with all of this and even went along with it.

Komaru grinned and noddded in excitement before taking a big bite of her food and Toko was about to follow her, before a little peeping noise interrupted her. The author frowned, fully aware that that was the sound of her emergency phone for the organization, so only Makoto, Byakuya Kyoko and Aoi Asahina had the number. She quickly pulled it out and read the message that Byakuya had sent her, her poor heart immediatly making flips when she saw that Byakuya Togami sent her a message.

“Couldn’t beat giant rabbit. Still headed for the village. Seems to have protection. Raise security.”

Toko’s frown deepened at this statement, her brows creased in concern, her head lowering a bit as she thought, some unruly strands falling into her face.

Komaru interrupted her eating to look at Toko in concern, her head slightly tilted and her ahoge bobbing lightly at the movement. “Is everything okay?”

Toko looked up, pushing the strands out of her hair and the glasses back up her nose, a small smile on her lips so Komaru wouldn’t panic when it wasn’t necessary. “Oh, there are just some problems with the giant raider running amok. I will inform the organization tomorrow so we can raise defenses, just in case it comes to an actual fight.”

Komaru looked at the author, worry shining in her eyes but knowing she won’t get any more information than that. She wasn’t part of the organization, she had no chance of getting more information out of Toko. So she didn’t say anything and merely returned to her food, not noticing how Toko’s smile turned tense. Byakuya and Kyoko were together on the mission to stop the giant raider…. and if these two combined their powers and couldn’t do anything…. then this was serious. But she wasn’t going to back down. She wasn’t going to get defeated by some stupid bunny, that much can she guarantee.


	9. To be or not to be soulless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, if you tolerate this story and maybe even enjoy reading it then hit me up with a comment, I wanna know what you think about it and comments keep my motivation high! Enjoy the chapter. We gonna meet some new peeps today.

Taka was glad that Teruteru was recovering quickly. The chef still had problems with the usage of his powers and was therefore forced to walk around the kitchen, instead of skating, a big sacrifice truly, but otherwise he seemed to have returned to his old self, he was cooking with passion, perving with passion and screaming with passion when someone messed up something in the kitchen. And no one would want to have it any other way. Even if cheese was thrown in Mondo’s direction and Leon slipped on olive oil, it was stll the way it was supposed to be.

It was currently noon, just after their lunch and a bit of waiting to digest the truly delicious meal, Taka had planned to train a bit with Chihiro, since their body was smaller and weaker than the average person. The master intended to improve Chihiro’s speed and flexibility, currently wearing baggy black pants that purposefully decrease his movement, so he was an easier target for Chihiro and he could train his own agility. Chihiro was balancingon a rather thin log, wearing green ballerinas to make balancing easier, white socks that almost reached their knees and a white sport-skirt, with shorts underneath so they wouldn’t have to worry about their skirt revealing anything.

“Okay Chihiro! Your first mission is it to jump from log to log, you are allowed to jump on anything that isn’t the ground! You see Teruteru and Leon over there? They hold the item we wanna have! So we have a little competition! I’m allowed to run over the ground but musn’t jump, while everything you can do is jump. Who get’s the item and runs back here first wins, sound good?”

Chihiro nodded, a smile on their face and determination shining in their big brown eyes. Taka nodded and waved as he yelled: “ALRIGHT KYOUDAI! WE ARE READY!”

Mondo nodded at this and stepped forward, making sure everyone is at the right position, slowly raising his arm as he announced: “Ready. Set.” Everyone’s muscles tensed at Mondo’s voice slowly speaking these words, ready to jump or run, hearts thumping in their chests due to immeasurable adrenaline.

“GO!” Mondo yelled as he shot an aura-sphere in the air which faded away like a fire-cracker, with some noise and flashing lights, and the two were immediatly off. Taka was sprinting while Chihiro jumped, the powers of their soul making them even faster and causing them to bounce off the logs instead of landing on them, making them even faster and slowing Taka down due to the electricity left in their path.

Chihiro was shooting towards Leon who quickly ducked, so the smaller one wouldn’t get the item, causing Chihiro to hiss quietly and turn midair, their feet landing on the wall of the dojo before shooting themselves towards Leon again, this time even faster because of the momentum while Taka simply tackled Teruteru down, a bit more careful than necessary because the chef still hasn’t recovered completely, and tried to run back to the start, but Chihiro was fast and was this time able to snatch the item while still in the air, landing not necessary, making a flip in the air and landing on Taka‘s shoulders and using him as a piece of log to push not only the master away but also to move themselves even more forward, getting a huge advantage and resulting in them winning by mere inches.

Taka was panting, the training was intense and adrenaline inducing, but after some time to process everything, a huge grin formed on his face and he laughed loudly, exclaiming: “That was truly splendid Chihiro. You completely mastered the technique of jumping around, especially with your powers! But be carefu, you will always need to learn, or your mastering will mean nothing because everyone will surpass you!”

Chihiro nodded, their smile as bright as the sun as they jumped down from the log they were previously standing on, taking the offered hand and giving it a huge squeeze, flinching when Taka yelped and all his hair stood up from his body.

Taka stared into nothing with wide eyes before laughing and letting go of Chihiro’s hand, announcing: “I see someone is still quite loaded with energy!” Chihiro laughed at that statement, very glad that Taka was never mad with them, no matter how many times they accidentally shocked the master, he was just always a very forgiving person, which they could respect, not everyone was able to be so kind-hearted and forgiving like Taka was…. at least if you didn’t break any rules, if you did then there was no mercy from the master.

Chihiro laughed as they genuinly thankef Taka for all the help. They remembered very clearly how weak they used to be, unable to properly use their powers and to defend themselves. It used to be so much worse and they were progressing rapidly. Their father would be so proud of them.

Taka grinned brightly and clapped Chihiro on the back, who coughed a bit of air up at the sudden force but still laughed, before perking up at the sound of steps. Two set of steps to be exact and they could already distinguish that it weren’t Leon or Teruteru. Teru’s steps were surprisingly quiet, even now in his weakened state he was literally never audible from the distance while Leon’s steps had a certain passion but were rather unrhythmic and sudden.

The first set of steps was slow, calculated, one step after the other, a quiet clicking audible while the other set seemed similar to Leon’s, but much more calculated and intimidating. Taka seemed to realize it too and immediatly turned to the entrance of the dojo and sure enough. Two people were standing there.

One had an average height, the cloak they were wearing hiding their face and expression, but a hostile aura surrounded them. The other was small, taller than Chihiro and Teruteru, but still small and apparently very thin, even though no one could say for sure, the cloak they were wearing was hiding it. They couldn’t even say who was male or female, if they were.

The smaller figure shook their head lightly before taking off the hood, revealing their face. It seemed to be a boy, even though the others weren’t quite so sure about this, his hair was short and blonde with little lines shaved into the side. His face was oddly feminine with rosy cheeks, freckles and big lovely green eyes, even though they held an agressive energy everyone could feel.

Mondo squinted at the two figures, his insticts flaring up and immediatly sniffing the air and trying to deduce if they were friend or foe. He had failed with the rose-raider, he wouldn’t fail ever again. The taller one had an ice-blue aura, indicating that they were usually calm but weren’t afraid to come down like a blizzard while the male in front of them had a blazing orange aura, which stood for bravery, energy but also good intentions. Mondo very rarely saw a person with orange aura that had ill will.

The male made a dismissive sound and looked around, seemingly unimpressed as he asked: “So, this is Hope’s Peak Dojo, huh?”

The other figure took their hood off, revealing the face of a beautiful young woman, her silver hair in two braids, her intense red eyes framed with glasses as she scanned the environment, deducing: “I’m certain. We couldn’t have taken the wrong path.”

Taka snappen himself out of his daze and quickly greeted the two with a bright smile and open arms: “Of course! Welcome to Hope’s Peak Dojo! It is an honour to have you here! My name is Kiyotaka Ishimaru, I’m the master of this dojo! May I ask for your names? And what brought you here?”

The small male stared at Taka, his gaze like iron and unwavering, the wind rustling his cloak and causing it to flow slightly, while the woman stood closely behind the male, fixating Taka with intense red eyes, not even blinking as she took in every little detail about the male.

“I’m not here to chitchat, fucker. I’m here to join. The name is Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu and this is Peko Pekoyama!” He pointed to the female behind him with his thumb, an angry expression on his face as he took his cloak off and threw it in the air, where it slowly flew down and got caught by Peko, who quickly folded it with some quick movements before stuffing it away.

Now that the cloak was missing everyone could see what Fuyuhiko was wearing. A white button-up shirt and a black jacket with a black necktie, the emblem of the Kuzuryuu-Clan stitched into it with much care. His pants were also black and the suit-shoes explained the sound his steps made, at least for Chihiro.

Taka’s eyes widened at the revelation of the name: “Kuzuryuu?”

This caused Fuyuhiko to grin, which looked everything but intimidating, it looked like he still had some of his baby-teeth, as he answered: “Damn right. What, intimidated, shithead? Get it on! I’m not joining just like that, I wanna see what the master of this fucking barrack is capable of!”

Taka clenched his fists, his jaw tensing, this boy had an even dirtier mouth than Mondo had, his thick eyebrows drawing together as he tried to keep himself together so he wouldn’t scream at Fuyuhiko about the rules. He didn’t even see how Peko was still fixated on him, even though her gaze seemed to be much more surprised now, almost shocked, not that anyone could see it on her usually stoic face. The only one who probably could was Fuyuhiko, who was completely focused on Taka.

“So you want to challenge me?”

Asked the master, to which Fuyuhiko grinned for a moment. “You bet! So are we fighting or not, bastard?!”

He shouldn’t. He really shouldn’t. He should tell Fuyuhiko he wouldn’t accept him in the first place and just send him away. telling him he didn’t mess with the Yakuza and especially not the Kuzuryuu-Clan, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t say this. What kind of person would he be to just send the two of them after their probably long journey away. He couldn’t do it.

Instead his grin turned determined as he announced: “Alright! I accept your challenge! One battle, souls are allowed, who flies out of the circle or can’t get up anymore loses!”

Fuyuhiko rose his voice, just like Taka did in this announcement and retorted with a: “DAMN RIGHT! You don’t stand a chance against the Kuzuryuu-Clan!”

Peko blinked, rightening her glasses which jostled slightly with the movement of her head before declaring: “I will judge this battle, don’t take it as a federal offense, I just want to make sure.”

“Ehm, sure, no offense taken.” Responded Mondo who was about to do it, but when Peko really wanted, then he would let her do it, even though it confused him slightly. Peko’s Aura was so similar to someone else’s and even the scent had a certain familarity…

He stepped aside so Peko could take his place who immediatly explained the rules: “This is a One versus One battle, the usage of souls is granted! If one of the two fighters get thrown out of the ring or are unable to get up after 2 minutes! The usage of fatal attacks is forbidden to prevent heavy injuries! Understood?”

“Understood!” Both responded, their gazes fixed upon each other, sparks emitting from their eyes.

Peko announced the begin of the fight and both immediatly sprinted towards each other, reeling back with the intend to punch each other, only to be met with the other’s fist, their movement immediatly stopping as they focused on the pain in their fists, the dust around them forming a small ring and the others almost able to feel the wave of pressure that was sent towards them from the sheer force this collision provided.

Fuyuhiko grit his teeth and reeled back, ready to ram his elbow into Taka‘s stomach who quickly turned to the side and was therefore able to dodge in the last minute, but he wasn’t able to counter-attack, since Fuyuhiko almost instantly turned around and rammed his other fist into Taka’s stomach, who made a choked noise and stumbled backwards, holding his stomach in pain, his eyes forcefully shut but still managing to make a sidestep to dodge another ringed fist from Fuyuhiko. He snapped his eyes open, just in time to see another fist, both hands shooting out and grabbing his wrist, twisting it slightly to get a better grip, Fuyuhiko’s big eyes getting even bigger when he was fung over Taka’s shoulder and tossed to the ground, almost flying out of the ring but managing to roll on the ground and immediatly stop himself, the dust around him giving him an opportunity to hide slightly and recover from the pain in his shoulder, caused by the strong throw he had to endure.

Taka attempted to wall quietly so Fuyuhiko wouldn’t immediatly notice him, only for the Yakuza to sprint out of the dust and immediatly make himself small as Taka attempted to punch him, the master’s fist soaring over Fuyuhiko’s head and giving the Yakuza enough time to ram his fist into Taka’s fist again, smiling in triumph while Taka coughed violently again, but apparently not about to let Fuyuhiko get away with it this time, using his knee to ram it into Fuyuhiko’s own stomach, who coughed violently and even fell to the ground, but quickly scrambling up and turning his legs to trip Taka up, who jumped over the suit-shoes with a flip before making a leap, arms stretched out, ready to pin Fuyuhiko down, but the Yakuza used his secong leg to kick him in the side and change his line of flying, causing the master to land next to the Yakuza and giving Fuyuhiko the time to ram his shoe into Taka’s back, multiple joins popping as Taka cried out.

Fuyuhiko spat on the ground and wiped his face before he said: “Heh, not bad, I didn’t expect you to fight like this. What is it, huh? Why aren’t ya using your strong soul?”

Fuyuhiko turned his shoe and stomped stronger on Taka’s back who made little noises of protest before answering: “What about you? I didn’t see you use one ability.”

Fuyuhiko clenched his teeth and yelled: “None of your fucking business, bastard!” Already reeling back to punch Taka in the neck, but Taka bended backwards, more joints popping violently as he grabbed Fuyuhikos arm and tossed him forward, causing the Yakuza to land in the dirt in front of Taka, both of them on the ground now, panting heavily and looking at each other.

Both of them only took ten seconds to recover before they were ready to run screaming at the other, but a figure was suddenly standing in front of them, declaring: “That’s enough.”

Both males blinked, clearly startled that Peko was now standing between them, declaring the battle for finished.

Fuyuhiko seemed confused, ready to snap at the female, before he blinked and shook his head slightly, as if remembering something, his cocky grin back on his face when he announced: “Yes, that’s enough. I just wanted to see if I could learn anything from you. I apparently can. I want to join the dojo.”

Taka slowly stood from the ground, confusion evident on his face when he asked: “…Why did we interrupt the battle now? It was just about to get exciting.”

Peko explained it to Ishimaru for the male, beginning: “We just wanted to find out how you fight, how heavily you rely on your soul and how well you do without it.”

Fuyhuhiko continued: “Damn right. And you fucking didn’t use your soul throughout the whole fight and you were very fast and strong. I can work with that!”

Chihiro tilted their head slightly, asking: “Are you telling us you’re….”

Fuyuhiko’s eyes moved and focused on Chihiro, a tense expression on his lovely face when he confirmed: “What, soulless? Couldn’t you tell? Using powers was allowed, so what other reason could there be for me to not use it?!”

It went so on for the rest of the day, witty banter, introductions, Fuyuhiko was more than pleased that Leon AND Taka seemed to be lacking powers, while Peko kept mostly quiet, occasionally exchanging conversation with Mondo and talking with Taka, careful to remain polite. And even though both of them were mostlikely member of the yakuza, he still accepted both of them into the dojo and gave them rooms right next to each other, Fuyuhiko requested it..

And just like that, they had two new and certainly odd members for Hope’s Peak Dojo. Taka was excited, just like Teruteru since he know had two more people to creep on and hope for a chance to get to know them better, Leon was ecstatic, he already exchanged music tastes with Fuyuhiko and they seemed to be similar to Taka’s dread, who now probably had to head metal and rock music blasting out of two rooms of the dojo.

Chihiro was kinda glad that they had a new female in the dojo, not that they were female, but it was a nice change of pace. Mondo already got into two arguments with Fuyuhiko, dropping swears sailors would wash their mouths out at, and no one could feel better about their new team-additions right now. everyone truly felt benefitted.


	10. Desert in the Morning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got really motivated due to some really nice comics, so I released the new chapter a bit sooner than normal, I hope you guys enjoy it. We meet some new characters today ^^   
> If you like it, come talk to me in the comments, I appreciate it.

Fuyuhiko may have agreed to stay in Hope’s Peak Dojo, however, what he didn’t put into thought were the routines that followed with the new place he was now living at.

Naturally, he wasn’t too happy when at way too early o’ clock a gong echoed through the dojo, causing the small yakuza to yelp and fall out of his bed, groaning as he rubbed the back of his head which he banged at the edge of the bed. He grumbled some curses as he looked around his new room, the environment still new for him.

The walls were painted in a neutral white, Taka already informed him that he could customize the room however he wanted, however, he was forced to put it back in his regular condition once he left. There wasn’t much to see yet, his room was on the ground, right next to Peko’s and Chihiros while Mondo, Taka and Teruteru lived upstairs. The only truly interesting things so far were the window that allowed him to look outside and a picture of him and Peko as children on his nightstand, apart from that there was a closet in his room and enough space to feel comfortable without being cramped.

Not that the yakuza cared for that at the moment. He got up and stomped towards the window, forced to stand on his tippy-toes to even open the window and pushing himself up on the windowshill to properly look outside, and sure enough, he saw how Taka was banging the gong with almost disturbing determination, as if he wanted the blasted thing dead, not that he could blame the master, Fuyuhiko wanted the thing dead aswell.

“TAKA! What the fuck are you doing you bastard!?!”

The master looked up in confusion, as if not sure who the voice belonged to, before grinning brightly and waving in Fuyuhiko’s general direction, announcing:

“Good morning Fuyuhiko! I’m glad to see that you are already up and about! This is part of the morning routine! We always eat breakfast this early and then start our morning-training together! I have some plans for you and Peko already!”

Fuyuhiko clenched his jaw, his lovely eyes narrowing as he tried with all his might to make Taka’s head with his thoughts explode, but alas, he already joined and now he couldn’t back out anymore. He still needed to get dressed and make himself look like a functioning human being, so he jumped down from the windowshill and walked to his closet, a slight stomping audible since the yakuza was pretty pissed off.

He pulled some loose brown pants and a tight white shrit out of the closet convinced the training would get him dirty so he wouldn’t put on one of his good suits, he wasn’t some dirty idiot, before getting his bathroom-stuff and opening the door for said bathroom, surprised to find Peko on the hallway, apparently checking if she had everything.

She was already fully dressed and prepared, Wearing a red scard with a long-sleeved black shirt and thigh-high’s and a knee-long black skirt, accompanied by flat but also black ballerinas. It was an outfit Peko liked to wear for training since it covered enough but was comfortable enough for strong movements. Her hair was already braided into two braided pigtails, not a single strand out of place or rebelling, her enchanting red eyes currently not framed by glasses since she has them in her hand and is currently cleaning them from dust and prints that made it hard to see through.

Peko looked up, her gaze for a moment softening as she greeted Fuyuhiko. “Good morning. You are up early.” She sounded only a little bit surprised, surely she heard the noise Taka made outside, but judging from her appearance and already pretty awake movements and words, she has been up for a while now. Unlike Fuyuhiko, who moved with the graze of a guinea pig on roller-blades, slurring the words: “How could I if this fuckhead keeps banging that fucking gong in my face?”

Peko quickly placed a hand over her mouth to stifle her lauging and the little snort that would have escaped if she didn’t do it, trying to calm herself down first before speaking, but Fuyuhiko looked absolutely adorable, tired and annoyed like this. He didn’t even look particularly angry, just a bit disgruntled and the way his usually big eyes are scrunched up and his rosy cheeks are slightly inflated was just too cute for the swordswoman.

“This…. This is the routine you have to adjust now, my young master.”

Peko tried to speak calmly, which she suceeded in in the second try, her hand dropping and looking down at Fuyuhiko with an intense but not stern expression, the yakuza knew that Peko just had very intense eyes.

Said yakuza grumbled something incoherently and rubbed an arm over his eyes to get the sleep out of them, his answer muffled as he spoke: “I fucking know, doesn’t mean I fucking like it, why can’t this stupid bastard not put alarm clocks into everyones rooms, so everyone can pick when to get up…”

He continued to grumble on his way to the bathroom until he was out of earshot for Peko, who chuckled quietly and watched the back of her young master disappear down a corner to get ready for the day.

She sighed with a smile as she put the glasses back on her nose again, making her way to Taka, outside of the dojo, the encounter with Fuyuhiko immediatly putting her into a good mood. She isn’t one that can usually well with people, they just tend to be intimidated by her or avoid her altogether. Fuyuhiko was the only one who always understood her small signals and quirks and knew when she wanted to be alone and when she was just being herself.

And on the other hand, Peko knew all of Fuyuhiko’s little quirks and characteristics, how he tends to drink milk, even though he is lactose intolerant and will get sick from it, but he does it anyway, just out of spite, how his genuine smile is the most precious thing the world has seen, how it is usually a bad sign when he clicks with his tongue or grinds with his teeth, how even his step can be a clear sign of his mood, whereas stomping isn’t necessarily a bad sign and can just indicate tiredness. It was interesting.

Peko opened the door outside and stepped into the cool but very nice breeze that immediatly blew through her hair, Taka looking up when he heard the sound of the door and smiling brightly. “Ah, Peko! Also one for getting up early I see? Good morning!”

Peko regarded Taka a little bit closer. His black hair looked just like yesterday, it didn’t look like it needed too much preparation in the bathroom, the only thing different about him were the clothes. Today he was wearing black pants and a white shirts, good for movement obviously. Taka seemed to be the type that valued practicality and style over comfort and apparently tended to wear uncomfortable clothes if they gave him any kind of advantage in every-day life.

Peko looked him into the face, how his read eyes seemed to gleam in the sunlight and how his raven hair was moving slightly with the breeze. He seemed to be in a pretty good mood today, he was probably happy the two of them joined the dojo yesterday, so she should stay polite and friendly, especially if her suspicion is true.

“Good mornig…. Ishimaru, was it?” She cocked her head slightly to ask for confirmation, the name sounding familiar. They had a prime minister with the name once, that she knew, but she didn’t know too much about him.

Taka nodded, grin still on his face and perfect teeth still showing as he responded: “Indeed, but please! Taka will just suffice, we are all training together after all! So there is no need for formalities, unless you feel uncomfortable without it!”

Peko looked at Taka for a moment, her gaze neutral, before the corners of her mouth twitched slightly and she agreed: “Coexisting without formalities will just suffice. Excellent.”

“I agree! I’m glad we were able to establish that! But…. tell me.” He opened his eyes again, a confused but also serious expression on his face when he asked her out of the blue: “Do I know you? I don’t remember you, but I have seen you before, haven’t I?”

Peko blinked, regarding the master in front of her closer and thinking for a moment, before simply answering with an : “I don’t know.”, which was the best answer she could have offered, because she truly wasn’t sure. Taka was a young man, she was a young woman, even though she was the oldest in the dojo with her 22 years, 2 years older than Mondo and 4 than Taka.

Taka didn’t look too convinced, but his attention shifted away from the female when Mondo came stumbling outside, rubbing his eyes and yawning, his canines showing that way. He mumbled something in a sleepy tone and immediatly wobbled towards the kitchen where Teruteru was currently preparing breakfast, which the wolf could already smell from far away.

Chihiro was the next to come out, already fully dressed and hair neatly combed and tied back into aponytail, reminding Taka of the fact that he promised to take Chihiro to the hairdresser to get a haircut, it really was time. It was time for Taka aswell, so it wasn’t a problem at all.

Chihiro smiled at Taka and Peko and greeted them cheerily: “Good morning Taka and Peko! I hope you slept well in your new room?”

“It was better than what I’m used to.” The woman admitted, causing the brunet to smile sympathetically and invite her to eat breakfast with all of them, which she wanted to deny at first, but she felt rather hungry, so she chose not to wait for Fuyuhiko and get to know the other members of the dojo while the yakuza prepared himself in the bathroom.

——————

The walk was long and tideous, they were on their way for quite a while now and it was certainly going to take a few more hours until they would finally reach their destination. The three of them were exhausted, their steps heavy and the protection against the wind starting to get scratchy on their skin. It were three of them, on their way for quite some time now, from a far-away kingdom, sent to protect the village they were headed for against the powerful raider that was making it’s way towards the small village.

One of them groaned heavily and finally collapsed on the ground, not able to move another step. They were currently walking through hot desertland and it was insufferable, they were thirsty and collapsing from the heat. One of the other two leaned down and nudged the collapsed figure gently, trying to motivate them to get up with their deep and husky voice: “Tamer of automations, you need to rise, we have almost arrived. We can’t stay in the sun for too long.”

Kazuichi Souda, the tamer of automations, groaned and weakly rolled onto his side, the hood dropping from his head and revealing from the heat frizzed pink hair, some strands in a small braid. The mechanic’s eyes were closed while he was panting heavily, trying to regulate his body-temperature which was too high for his own good.

The other figure next to the one with the deep voice dropped onto their knees and also dropped their hood, looking at Kazuichi with worry and putting a well-manicured hand onto his forehead, worry evident on her lovely face. “Will he be okay?” She asked in a foreign accent , the mechanic simply shifting on the ground since the sand was way too warm for him to lie down.

The other figure shook their head as they explained: “We need to find water and shadow so he can properly recover. It looks like he is suffering immensely from the heat, which makes sense, considering his soul inhabiting water-powers and causing him to dry up quicker.”

The female of the group who checked Kazuichis vitals just a few moments ago stood up and looked around, unable to spot anything that could help them in their current predicament. No nearby cave or anything. How were they supposed to help Kazuichi without any water or shadow? It was barely noon, they couldn’t wait any longer!

She flinched when she felt a disturbance in the earth, head whipping around. Vibrations. Very gentle, not like moles or other creatures digging through the earth, it were steps, very delicate steps, like the sand could crumble when they walked too hard on it. And sure enough, Sonia spotted a tall figure, a bit taller than Gundham Tanaka, the other figure that had yet to take his hood off.

The closer coming figure was moving like a ghost in a snowstorm, absolutely elegant, no movement wasted while looking completely beautiful, the only thing strange being the hood they were wearing, presumambly to protect themselves from the sun rays. They were wearing a black kimono with lovely black markings and thin black shoes that seemed to be made for quick and elegant dancing, rather than traditional japanese dancing. 

“Who is this?!” Asked Sonia Nevermind, the princess of the kingdom the three of them were sent from, Novoselic with name, immediatly straightening her back, her voice holding a lot more authority now when the figure was standing directly in front of them.

They tilted their head slightly, as if regarding the three of them closer, before finally asking in a calm and friendly voice: “Novoselic, aren’t you?”

Sonia’s eyes widened and she answered automatically with: “How-”

Causing the figure to interrupt her, saying: “I would like to say that I heard it from your accent, but I am fairly bad at this, I simply saw an article with a picture of you. Excuse me princess, but I think we have more serious things to discuss at the moment.”

Her eyes shifted to Kazuichi for a moment before nodding, determination on her face when she asked: “Yes, do you have any way to protect our friend and ally from the offending sun rays? He has a water soul and is drying out.”

The figure tilted their head again and regarded Kazuichi for a second, before turning around and slowly walking in a direction, their voice getting carried by the wind as they told the other two to follow them.

Gundham picked Kazuichi up and followed Sonia and the figure to the place the figure would take them to to help them.

———–

He really didn’t expect this person to have a tent in the middle of the desert, now sitting on the ground silently while Sonia poured water over Kazuichis body to rehydrate him. It was the quickest but strangest way for Kazuichi to absorb liquids.

When the mechanic was finally resting, Sonia looked up, relief washing over her face when she genuinly thanked the figure, from the bottom of her heart.

The figure simply shook their head and responded: “It’s not a problem.” Before finally popping their hood off and revealing a sharp but lovely face with clear blue eyes and dark-blonde swoopy hair that reached his chin. But the most prominent feature was the butterfly inked into his face, the colours varying from lovely blue to light purple and looking like a permanent tattoo. “It’s what every decent human-being would do.”

Sonia blinked, very surprised about the person that was in front of her, since she knew who he was. The emblem that was tattooed on his face was the family emblem of the Nadeshiko-family, a family that is almost as successful but certainly as rich as the Togami-clan. So this person was….

“…You’re Jared Nadeshiko, aren’t you?”

Gundhams eyes shifted to the person in front of him, squinting suspiciously. Was it the truth, was this Jared Nadeshiko, the future heir of the Nadeshiko Corporation that went missing a few weeks ago? If so, this was scandalous, a high reward would be given to the person to bring him back to his family.

Jared’s smile got a bit wider, so it actually looked very forced, before his gaze turned to the ground when he asked: “What if I am? What are you going to do with that information? Are you going to capture me and hand me over to my family, after I offered you my water and a place for you to stay and your friend to rest?”

Sonia’s eyes widened and she quickly explained to defuse the situation: “Nono, don’t worry about that! We aren’t mercenaries or after some kind of big prize money or anything!”

Jared actually chuckled at that as he leaneda bit back to stare at the roof of the tent, as if he could actually see the sky. “I didn’t expect anything less from you, princess Sonia Nevermind.”

The princess tilted her head lightly, her curiosity piqued, a question that was nagging in her mind and burning under her manicured nails, she just needed to know. “Pardon my intrusion, but why are you hiding in the desert of all places? What is the goal you are moving towards? Why did you leave your family?”

Jared actually thought about this answer for a long time, he had a distant look on his face while he was staring holes in the air, his eyes occasionally flashing with a memory or an emotion the princess wasn’t able to decipher, but Gundham was. He knew the emotions Jared was going through at the moment, it was the same he felt towards the demon that kept the angel that gave birth to him prisoner for so many years. It was… hatred. Pure and utter rage and hatred. It took a few minutes for Jared to finally answer the question:

“Because I hate them. All my life I never had any childhood since I was always prepared to become the heir of my families corporation, even though I stated multiple times I didn’t want to. I got this thing thanks to them.”

He gestured loosely towards his face where the butterfly was still very prominent on his face. “No one will ever love me, because they will always see Jared Nadeshiko, heir of the Nadeshiko Corporation, not the actual me…. Not that I can blame them… it’s hard to see someone’s real face when it is covered by a butterfly…”

Sonia was about to argue with him about that, but was immediatly interrupted by Jared continuing his story with an oddly passionate smile: “I made a bet with my mother! There is going to be a fighting-tournament in the village nearby and if I manage to get there without being caught and manage to get a high rank, we are talking like top 5 or something, then I am allowed to continue my journey and become a professional dancer!”

Sonia smiled brightly at that, finally understanding why Jared was walking through the desert and tried not to get spotted by anyone. It was because of the bet because he wanted to preserve his actual dreams!

“That is great! I wish you the absolute best on your journey! I’m sure you will succeed!”

Jared smiled just as brightly as he told them: “Thank you! Can you imagine how far I would be able to come! Where I could be tomorrow?! All I need to do is finally leave Nadeshiko Corporation behind and never have to think about my last name or my family again!”

He let himself fall backwards so he was now lying on the ground, sighing as he closed his eyes for a moment and spoke with closed eyes: “I like to imagine myself as the king of this world, admired but respected.”

He opened his eyes and continued to look at the roof as he continued: “But it always ends in a nightmare. I’m terrified of people looking at me for too long and judging me. I was judged for far too long to just shrug it off.” He sighed. “I just need to compete in the tournament.

Gundham let out a low growl directly from his throat before he announced: “I don’t think you are ready to compete in the tournament and achieve a position high enough to satisfy your familie’s expectations!”

The breeder made himself look taller while Jared looked oddly unimpressed, apparently used to this tactic of intimidation and not giving Gundham any satisfaction of a proper reaction.

“You are aware that most of the competing people there will be champions or at least skilled fighters, right!? You wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Jared rose an eyebrow from his position as he asked nonchalantly: “Is that a challenge?”

Gundham squinted at the blonde in front of him, showing his teeth for intimidation and raising his bandanged hand in front of his face before announcing: “One hour. Prepare yourself.”

Before he was gone. It took just some seconds before he sprinted out of the tent with surprising speed, apparently ready to fight Jared to test the skills he taught himself and to judge if the young dancer would be able to compete in the tournament and actually stand a chance.

Said dancer actually jumped off the ground with an elegant figure and also left the tent to warm his muscles up and prepare himself for the fight while Sonia continued to take care of Kazuichi, a little bit worried but even more excited to see the fight that was going to happen. She smiled brightly at the thought of new moves she was going to see, especially from Jared since she never saw him fighting. It would be exciting!


	11. Fly high, Butterfly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo, Jared and Gundham are gonna battle, are you excited?! I hope you are, this chapter was hard to write. I hope you guys like it! inform me if you do ;)

Kazuichi woke up after half an hour, fully hydrated and confused how they got from endless desert to… tent. Sonia explained the whole situation to the recovering mechanic, told him about how he lost conciousness and how Jared helped them and told everything the dancer told her and Gundham and how the conversation resulted in Gundham challenging Jared to a battle and the two of them now warming up for a proper fight. Of course, Kazuichi wanted to see someone kicking Gundhams ass, so he immediatly got up, with minor help from Sonia which he didn’t particularly need but he wasn’t going to complain either, to meet their mysterious saviour.

Jared wasn’t far from the tent, he was stretching himself and apparently practicing some very acrobatic dance-moves, even though the princess and mechanic had no idea why he was dancing to warm up. Maybe it was just the best way for him, who were they to judge.

Jared noticed them rather quickly, looking up in surprise and waving, before asking: “Hello! You are Kazuichi, are you not? Do you feel a little bit better?” The mechanic’s eyes were glued to the dancer’s face, eyes wide and mouth agape before exclaiming: “Whoa, dude! What happened to YOUR face?!” Immediatly followed by Sonia elbowing Kazuichi in the stomach, who gasped and doubled over in pain, because Sonia was a strong woman.

“Kazuichi! You can’t just ask something like this before you properly introduced yourself!”

She looked back up, noticing how Jared tried to pull his kimono up to hide his face, looking around for the cloak he was wearing to hide himself under the hood, apparently feeling very subconcious right now.

Kazuichi noticed it too, immediatly feeling guilty and trying to awkwardly redeem himself so his first impression might skyrocket from ‘Will never see again’ all the way up to ‘Can’t stand but isn’t as awful that I would have to sew his mouth shut’. “Man, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that! I mean, your face isn’t AWFUL, it’s actually quite handsome, the butterfly just confused me and it still does, so I’m not entirely over it and if Sonia didn’t tell me you were a dude I honestly would have tried to flirt with you, because you are some pretty lady, even though you aren’t even a lady and-”

The rambling ended with Sonia elbowing Kazuichi in the guts again an Jared’s cheeks turning a deep shade of red which he tried to hide with the sleeve of his Kimono which was just a little bit too short to hide everything. It was obvious that he felt uncomfortable and Sonia quickly realized that and felt the urge to stomp Kazuichi into the ground so he would finally stop saying stupi things.

Jared’s eyes averted the duo, apparently deep in thought before confessing: “I used to be.”

This made both of them perk up, surprise evident on their faces while Jared was still avoiding their gazes, his back straigt, as if artificially corrected and his hands fumbling around as he tried to find something for stimming, finally looking through his pockets and fishing his favourite D20, a dice with 20 sides, out and starting to roll it across his knuckles and throw from one hand to the other.

Sonia was the first who dared to ask, despite Kazuichi’s huge trap he refuses to keep shut. “What… do you mean, ‘you used to be’?” Maybe she just understood it wrong or Jared comes from another country aswell and articulated himself wrong.

But no, Jared explained: “I would rather not explain this to complete strangers, considering that not even my closest friends know about this. It is of no importance, especially not for you.” He quickly smiled to reassure them: “But don’t worry, I am comfortable with all pronouns, so it’s okay! But please refrain from referring to me as a female in public, it wouldn’t look too good considering the laws in our land. It is very frowned upon.”

Sonia understood. This is a complicated topic which the media and public refuse to properly acknowledge and Jared has a reputation to uphold. So she nodded and promised Jared that his little secret would stay with them, to which he smiled gratefully and finally introduced himself to Kazuichi properly.

“I’m sorry if this conversation was a little awkward for you. My name is Jared Nadeshiko, and it’s nice to meet you!”

He extended a hand for a handshake, the D20 in his other hand, so Kazuichi quickly grabbed it, a little too tightly than necessary and trying to hide how much his hands were sweating, as he responded: “Nice to meet’cha. The name’s Kazuichi Souda!”

Jared smiled pleasantly and let go of the mechanics hand to wipe it on his kimono, because it was really sweaty and kinda gross but he wasn’t going to let it get to him. “See? I knew you were capable of having normal conversations!” He laughed teasingly and even Sonia giggled while Kazuichi helplessly squawked something along the lines of: “What is that supposed to mean?!”

They held some pleasant conversation for the time, until the voice of Gundham rang out, a few feet away, as he announced: “DANCING ONE, OUR BATTLE SHALL BEGIN THAT THE HEAVEN’S WILL TURN RED AND SING TALES OF IT!”

Jared immediatly sprung to attention and made a little jump forward, determination shining in his lovely blue eyes as he announced: “I’m ready when you are, Lord of the underworld!”

Gundham laughed loudly and struck a pose as he practically screamed: “THAT’S RIGHT MORTAL! Cower before your master!”

Kazuichi casually leaned Sonia’s way and whispered as quietly as possible while Jared and Gundham walked to their positions to start the fight: “This is starting to sound weirdly sexual…” to which Sonia him promptly slapped and scolded before realizing that the two need a judge and walked to the middle of the battlefield, announcing: “Alright, this will be a fair 1 versus 1 battle. Heavy injuries or killing are forbidden, the usage of souls are allowed! Who is unable to get up after an attack or forfeits before someone can’t fight anymore, lost. Understood?”

“Understood.” Both boys answered, looking at each other with burning intensity, as if they were already trying to calculate how the battle would play out for either of them. It was important for Jared to win. If he lost, he would knew that he wasn’t ready for the tournament, which was already in a short time. If he lost, he knew he wasn’t ready and he would have no time to train so he would GET ready. And there was no way he could hide until the next tournament. There was just no way.

Sonia raised a hand to indicate that the battle was about to start and both males readied themselves. And when Sonia announced the beginning, Gundham immediatly sprinted towards Jared, who made a cartwheel to the side to dodge the punch thrown in his direction.

Jared was certainly a fit persona, but Gundham was determined to hit Jared, so he was going to do it. His scarf was flowing while he dashed forward and tried to throw another punch at Jared, who jumped high, made a flick in the air and then landed on Gundhams outstretched arm, looking down at the breeder before jumping over Gundhams head and landing elegantly, ready to strike a punch of his own, now that he had Gundhams back towards himself.

So he readied himself and then jumped towards Gundham, only for his eyes to widen as hamsters jumped out of the purple flowing scarf and jumped onto him, feeling their teeth, their little claws digging into his skin, causing the dancer to yelp. Gundham turned around and attempted to punch Jared, which the dancer dodged, only to be hit by the knee into his stomach, causing him to double over in pain. The hamsters retreated at Gundhams whistle and he looked down at the dancer who was unmoving.

“Is that it?” He asked, sounding disappointed and maybe a little bit angry. That Jared would think he has a chance in the tournament with skills like this.

Jared didn’t move for some more seconds and Gundham thought he was waiting for the breeder to end the battle already, to give up and retreat back into his old life, but he got surprised when Jared looked up, blue eyes shining with mischief and a grin on his face when he said: “You wish.”

Before rolling underneath Gundhams legs so his back was once again turned to Jared, before the dancer made some very quick movements, that looked like elegant but hectic dancing, to cause a cloud of dust to hide him and Gundham to turn around and squint, to take a precautonary step back. He had no idea what strategy Jared was chasing. How was he planning to defeat Gundham? The breeder was stronger than Jared, but the dancer was way more flexible and athletic. He could dodge almost everything, his body was like liquid, probably due to the dancing.

The breeder took another step back when he heard laughing, not liking the sound the dancer was currently making, his eyes widening when he saw three Jared’s dashing out of the dust cloud and dancing circles around Gundham, one of them occasionally lashing out and dealing a punch towards Gundham, which he was barely able to dodge in time, before the dancer moved back into the circle for the choreographed dance. Gundham looked at all of them, they looked absolutely identical, all their movements were fluid and practiced and the breeder couldn’t help but feel impressed. The ability to cast copies of yourself is rare, even rarer that the copies are actually able to be corporeal. It takes a lot of time and practiced and already proved to Gundham, that Jared didn’t only train his dancing skills, but also the power of his soul. 

Gundham waited for his chance, it was hard to dodge the swift strikes of the Jareds, unable to tell which was the real deal and which was just a copy that could be replaced by the original with ease, copies and originals weren’t connected to each other in that sense, the original couldn’t feel the copies pain, which was good, otherwise the ability wouldn’t be very good, would it?

One of the Jared’s lashed out and Gundham reacted quick, turned around and grabbed with both hands Jared’s outstretched arm, twisted it to get a better grip and grunted when he threw the dancer over his shoulder, only for his eyes to narrow when the copy crahsed onto the floor and exploded into thousand little white butterflies that were quickly flying off like particles of light. But if that was a copy that meant….

Gundham couldn’t react quick enough, one Jared locked him into a headlock and the other turned to face the breeder and peppered the body of the breeder in punched, punch after punch and Gundham grunted and groaned in pain, before finally managing to whistle properly, his hamsters popping back out and biting the Jared holding him, causing him to shriek and try to shake the hamsters off, causing his beloved four dark devas of destruction to only bite harder, until the Jared exploded in butterflies. So another copy. Which meant the original was….

He quickly sidestepped, just in time, because Jared would have tackled him to the ground if he wouldn’t have, but the dancer wasn’t as agile for nothing, he managed to turn around mid-movement, the sand effectively slowing him so he wouldn’t run too far, and then he dashed forward, his fist making contact with Gundhams face, who fell backwards, shocked, not expecting Jared to turn around so quickly. But he still managed to grab Jared’s other arm blindly and pull him down with him, causing the dancer to yelp and make a dance-movement, so he would at least crouch down and not lie down, like Gundham currently did.

The dark devas rushed back into Gundhams scarf before the breeder jumped up, so high, Jared’s mouth hung open from how high the breeder could jump from his crouched position. His heavy boots were on the same height as his face, with the dancer too late realized was a bad thing and only then did, when said heavy boot made contact with his nose and threw him back multiple feet.

Jared actually screamed, he felt his nose shift and blood flow freely and Jared needed a few seconds to regain his composure. He supported himself with both of his arms before raising one and touching around his nose, wincing at the touch but concluding that it wasn’t broken, just bleeding horribly. Jared got up, now standing on wobbly legs, blood flowing down his marked face and dripping onto his kimono, staining it with dark spots.

Gundham actually looked concerned. He knew rather serious injuries were allowed, but he didn’t want to hurt the dancer too badly. This was a test and Jared seemed to be reaching his limits, something Gundham could accept. He rose both arms to the height of his face and asked:

“Do you wish to end this battle so we can treat your injury dancing one? I apologize for it, but you have shown to me what you are capable of.”

Jared’s eyes widened, his nose apparently forgotten as both of his arms now were flat at his sides, his posturefixed like someone replaced his spine with an iron pole. “….End? You want to end it?” His voice was quiet but audible, but it sounded shocked and broken, something Gundham didn’t expect at all. The breeder remained calm as he tried to explain it to Jared: “You showed me many of the abilities you are capable off, I was able to judge you from that and am now ready to teach you more things you need to know if you want to stand a chance in the tournament.”

Jared’s whole body turned even more tense than before, Gundham could see it from his position, how Jared’s eyes turned intense, his teeth bared, his nose apparently long forgotten, blood staining his white teeth as he fballed his hands into fists, anger clouding his vision as he said: “Not good enough… I show you not good enough. You think I’m not worth a whole battle? I will show you.”

Gundham pulled his eyebrows together in confusion. Jared got his offer completely wrong and the breeder doubted he could now correct the mistake he made. No, for that it was too late when he saw how Jared’s eyes were glowing, the dancer surrounding himself with blue energy, as if cocooning himself, little voices audible that didn’t sound like Jared at all and crept Sonia and Kazuichi out.

The energy shifted and turned and finally Jared seemed to absorb it within himself causing something to grow out of his back and causing Gundhams eyes to widen. Wings. Actual butterfly wings. Gundham didn’t expect Jared to be able to fly, this was most surprising. The wings were beautiful, different shades of blue and a slight shimmer, resembling but not identical to the tattoo on his face. Jared looked up at him, his eyes still glowing, before jumping into the air, his wings keeping him up in the air. He screamed in anger before charging towards Gundham from above, who managed to dodge just in time, giving Jared time to fly back up, turn around and try again.

Gundham stretched his arms out and grabbed Jared’s outstretched hands, trying to stop him, but the dancer only pushed him backwards while Gundham had trouble standing, more and more sand piling up behind his boots as he tried to stop Jared. This was very important for the dancer. He refuses to stop this battle before a definite winner has been announced. Jared leaned closer, his face contorted with rage as he whispered: “I want to see you on the ground, I will make sure that you will never get up again.”

That didn’t sound like Jared. It was his voice, but his character completely switched. It distracted Gundham for a moment, not expecting a copy from Jared, also with wings, dashing towards him from the side and tackling him to the ground. When did he split himself, he never noticed him doing this?! Maybe he was just distracted by something. Gundham looked at Jared from his position, from his tense muscles and contorded face to glowing eyes, the breeder slowly concluding what it was that was clouding the dancer’s mind and preventing him to fight with the strategy he had at the beginning of the battle.

Despair. Jared needs to win this, not for Gundhams sake, but for his own, to confirm for himself that he can reach his goal in the tournament. And it makes him desperate, aggressive, distant…. cold. The wings were definetly real and part of his soul’s powers, but currently, they were fueled by despair and therefore prevented him from complicated movements or quick flying. The wings weren’t particularly useful at the moment. But maybe he could help the dancer.

After he defeated him to calm him down a little bit. And Gundham knew how. He made a little flip to stand on his feet again and sprinted towards the surprised dancer, jumped high enough to reach him and grabbed his shoulders, hoisted himself up, so he was a bit longer in the air, and turned Jared in the air, so his back was towards the breeder.

“I’m sorry…” Gundham quietly said, but he grabbed the wings from behind, and ripped them out in one fluent motion, the dancer screaming as blood and blue energy spilled out of him, while falling down on the ground like a sack of potatoes. The copy screamed from the pain aswell, because even if the original can’t feel the copies pain, the copie can feel the originals suffering. The copy exploded into butterflies, just like the actual wings, and Gundham felt horrible when he saw Jared lying on the ground, unmoving, with Sonia and Kazuichi staring in complete shock.

The princess quickly raised her hand and announced: “Jared is unable to keep fighting! Therefore Gundham wins!” Before running towards Jared and falling on her knees next to him, not sure where to touch him so he could help him. “Jared?! Jared, are you okay?! Do you need help?!” Kazuichi was quick to follow, his face pale and his eyes wide as he saw the blody back from the dancer, cursing as he concluded: “Shit, that doesn’t look good. At least Gundham ripped them clean off so nothing remains.”

If remains would have stayed, they would have to be pulled out too, causing even more pain than the dancer already had. As soon as Gundham landed back on the ground he sprinted towards the three with high speed and collapsed next to Jared on the ground, asking frantically: “Dancing one! Jared, are you okay?!”

The three heard a sniffle, then a sob, and finally the dancer turned his head, his blonde hair hiding his eyes as he sniffled again and then whispered: “I g-guess you were r-right… I’m n-not ready for the t-tournament… or f-freedom… if I l-lose control just like t-that…. and d-don’t even w-win despite the p-power it gave me…”

Gundham didn’t mean to break his spirit like that. Jared already had a cracked self-image and this loss apparently completely shattered the thought of a possible chance in the tournament… what were they going to do?

———-

Back at the village, where people are buzzing around and the dojo trains for the tournament, a man in a fine suit walks towards a pompous and decorated building, looking around suspiciously as if waiting for someone, before deciding that it was safe to go. He walked through the gates protecting the hope’s peak temple, the holy symbol of the village and the most visited attraction, with the dojo right behind it. Angel statues with swords were looking at him, as if guarding the place, but he didn’t care in the slightest. He opened the heavy doors and stepped inside the dimly lit place, not speaking since it was forbidden in the holy temple. It was only granted if you get permission from the priest of the place and he can’t just hand permissions out, he has to wait for when the gods and angels are in a good mood and won’t smite any living person down if they talk too much.

There weren’t many people at the temple, most of them were out at that time of the day, but the priest and a colleague of his were present. He announced himself with a whistle and and hummed, accompanied by a slight nod to greet the too of them.

His colleague turned around and immediatly raised his hands for ASL, greeting the newcomer: “I’m glad you could make it Mr. Kirigiri! The relic is still safe and heavily guarded, in case the giant raiders goal is actually this village!”

Jin Kirigiri, one of the high positions in the organisation Makoto, Byakuya, Toko and Kyoko work for, nodded, not wasting much time to raise his own hands to continue the silent conversation:

“You know it has to stay this way. Wouldn’t know what would happen if holy raider got it.”

They knew what would happen, they just weren’t sure what the consequences would be. But it made everyone nervous. Jin Kirigiri got the message from his daughter Kyoko yesterday, reporting and describing the raider, and he was able to conclude, that the giant bunny had to be a holy.

His colleague apparently didn’t know what he was talking about and made it obvious with his question, accompanied by a slightly tilted head: “Holy raider sir?”

The man explained, his hands flying quickly but showing clearly what he is meaning to say and his colleague was able to follow without much problem: “Rarest but strongest raiders, don’t follow rules of normal raiders, are for example much bigger than ordinary raiders. Very dangerous.”

The colleagues eyes widened when he shot the priest a quick glance who finally nodded and gave them therefore the permission to talk, immediatly asking in shock: “Sir, what would happen if the holy raider were to get the relic in this very temple?!”

Jin Kirigiri looked away for a moment, envisioning the creature in his own mind, thinking, contemplating, before continuing: “It would reach the status of a god.” He looked back at his colleague before continuing: “Holy raiders and holy souls are usually creatures that used to have a position in heaven but got banned for whatever reason. The good creatures become souls, the bad raiders. And it’s only logical that the raiders want back into heaven. He souls are kept at bay by the hosts, but this holy raider has no one to stop it. Who knows what it would do if it got god-like powers?”

The colleagues eyes widened when he realized what Jin Kirigiri was hinting at, his own voice almost leaving him as he rasped: “It could be the end of the village… maybe even the entire country…. or….”

“The end of the world.” Concluded Jin for his colleague, a grim and serious expression on his face while the priest retreats to retrieve something. “And it is our job to stop that from happening and to keep it as secret as possible. It would cause a panic if the villagers knew.”

The colleague informed Jin of what the organisation did while he was researching about holy raiders to inform himself about their enemy a little bit better. “The headmasters went into contact with the kingdom of Novoselic, which sent us some troops to fight against the bunny, even though it is not completely sure if they will arrive in time….”

Jin made a dismissive noise and looked away, a bitter expression on his face when he concluded: “Let’s pray that Hope’s Peak Dojo is as good as everyone says…. or everything is lost.”


	12. The Calm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's more of a filler chapter really. Character development and even the introduction of two new babies, which I hope you will love just as much as I do ^^ Write me if you liked the chapter, I would appreciate it very much.

“Goddammit Leon! What the fuck are you doing there?!”

Fuyuhiko was starting to lose his patience with these morons in the dojo. He had a good training with Taka today, but he really didn’t know what was going on with the rest of them.

For example the fact that Leon was currently crouching on top of the fridge with a bucket filled with hopefully water, waiting…. lurking for someone to arrive. The redhead rose a finger to his lips and tried to shush the small yakuza by explaining: “Shush! Teru should be coming here any second and I wanna see his face when I ruin his hair!”

Fuyuhiko raised an eyebrow, not moving from his current location and more than intent to just spoil the punks hiding spot, but…. he was also curious. Teruteru was a small man with much energy, similar to the yakuza himself, so he wanted to see what would happen if this energy got directed towards a single person.

So Fuyuhiko simply shrugged, opened the fridge to grab an apple, slamming the door shut afterwards and heading for one of the tables so he had the door and the fridge in immediate eyesight, munching absentmindedly while Leon’s legs fell asleep and he struggled with staying atop the rather large fridge. How did Teru get his ingredients anyway, the fridge was almost twice as big as the cook himself?!

It took some time, Fuyuhiko was almost finished with his apple, when Teruteru entered the kitchen, a slight spring in his step and a little tune whistled as he greeted the yakuza cheerfully and moved over to the fridge, apparently to get ingredients to cook something for the rest of them, not noticing the punk on top of the fridge, who grinned like an evil fox. Fuyuhiko had to admit that he was kinda looking forward to this spectacle, because it is either going to be terrifying or entertainting, maybe even both. So what did he have to lose?

It… went surprisingly fast. The bucket with hopefully water fell like in slow-motion, the shriek of Teruteru was high-pitched and didn’t exactly sound human, accompanied by a loud: “WHAT IS THIIIIIS?!” 

Fuyuhiko almost felt bad, emphasize on ‘almost’, he actually had to pull himself together to not laugh out loud, because that would probably get him into huge trouble…. and he could very well live on without the huge anger of the tiny chef, thank you very much.

“Hopefully water.” the yakuza still answered the chef’s question before quickly hiding under the table, because he thought for a moment that Teruteru would explode, considering how his eyes began to glow in an ominous blue and all of the hopefully water covering him slowly freezing up before shattering from the sheer pressure, but the chef’s hair was definetly ruined and Leon realized he was in trouble as soon as he realized that the blue eyes were actually staring directly at him.

“Eh! Oh…. Teruteru…. hey buddy, nice to see ya…. I would loooove to chat, but I have to water my…. face, excuse me please.”

And with that he jumped down from the fridge, almost falling on his face due to his exhausted ankles, and sprinted off, Teruteru following him with a screech and an arctic storm, causing the yakuza to actually shiver and take the last bite of his apple before discarding it in the bin and going to check on Leon to make sure that Teruteru didn’t kill him.

Turned out that Leon never made it far. When Fuyuhiko opened the door and stepped outside he actually saw him immediatly…. just turned into a human popsicle in the middle of the training ground…. with Teruteru nowhere to be seen, which is slightly concerning but not the yakuza’s problem.

“I heard commotion! What is going o- OH NO!” Taka came out of his room, the book he was reading still in hand before dropping it when he spotted Leon and Fuyuhiko, who was shrugging rather helplessly and occasionally glancing towards the popsicle-punk, not exactly sure how he is supposed to act in a situation like this.

Chihiro appeared right behind Ishimaru, a laptop still in hands before rolling their eyes and handing the device to Ishimaru before announcing: “I’m going to get the hairdryer.” Did this happen frequently?! Why was Taka still shocked about this when it happened on a regular basis?! WHERE DID TERUTERU GO?! Now Fuyuhiko was genuinly curious and terrified at the same time…. exactly how he expected to feel after this prank… just not with this outcome.

—————-

Byakuya and Kyoko made another stop, they have been travelling for a while now and the rather empty area revealed an inviting house to them, a perfect place for resting….. that is if the inhabitants will let them in. They didn’t look particularly invitable with their stoic faces and kind of insufferable attitude, at least for Byakuya.

“Don’t worry, this will work. If they refuse to take us in I will buy their house and destroy it until not even scrap is left.”

Kyoko rolled with her eyes as she walked towards the front porch, a lot of mugs in the front yard for some reason but otherwise everything looked relatively normal. The house was made of brick with wooden door and window-frames, the curtains drawn and the chimney emitting some smoke which indicated a fireplace.

“You will do no such thing.” She threatened him before knocking on the door with her gloved hand, waiting patiently for an answer, the tapping of Byakuyas foot slowly starting to tick her off.

It took a few seconds, but finally a person opened, a rather small person. the size of Makoto probably, with dark-blonde, almost brown, hair that reached almost the persons chin and quite a lot of stubble, almost enough to call it a beard, though it seemed to be shaved at the upper lip. He wore a brown coat with a ridiculously ugly sweater underneath and rimless glasses which were framing his brown eyes.

He regarded the two of them closer before asking in a smooth voice: “May I help you in any way?”

Byakuya was about to say something, but Kyoko rose her hand which was the equivalent of “Shut the fuck up or I will sew your mouth shut once this person slams the door in our faces”….. so Byakuya decided to shut the fuck up and let her do the talking, if he liked it or not.

“We were just looking for a place to take a break…. could we maybe come in and rest for a little bit?”

The person tilted his head slightly, regarding the two of them closer, before finally stepping aside to let them in and ask “Are you heading towards the village, what was it’s name again…. Blesville? For the tournament?”

This time it was Byakuya who answered the question, not bothering to take his shoes off or look at the person, instead silently judging the interior decor: “We are headed for Blesville, yes, but not for the tournament. We actually have something important to do.”

The person raised one eyebrow and then asked: “Did the doctors find a way to surgically remove the stick up your ass, because nothing can be as important as that.”

Kyoko quickly put a hand over her mouth to hide her silent laughter while Byakuya looked like his entire family had just been offended and spat on, which probably was somewhat the case. The detective quickly cleared her throat and then asked as nonchalantly as possible: “By the way, what is the meaning behind all of these mugs and cups in the front yard? Does it serve any special purpose?”

The person looked at Kyoko for a moment before exclaiming loudly: “What?! DEAN, HOW MANY TIMES DID I TELL YOU TO NOT DROP ALL THE MUGS IN THE YARD!? WHAT ARE THE GUESTS SUPPOSED TO THINK OF US?!”

So, Kyoko was able to conclude, it didn’t serve any special purpose that the mugs were stacked outside of the house in the front yard, quite the opposite actually, this man didn’t even know about his mugs being outside.

And apparently the man didn’t live alone, because a few seconds later a loud voice responded with: “AUSTIN AND JEFF AREN’T SUPPOSED TO VISIT ANYTIME SOON, BECAUSE OF THE TOURNAMENT, REMEMBER MCJONES?!”

The man sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose where his glasses were resting, an irritated expression on his face as he responded, not as loudly as this so called ‘Dean’: “Just put them back on the shelves! I will prepare the tea!”

“WAIT, WE ACTUALLY HAVE VISITORS?!”

“You don’t need to shout so much, I can hear you loud and clear!”

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?! I CAN’T HEAR YOU?!”

“I said I can hear you!”

“WHAT?!”

“I CAN HEAR YOU!”

“I CAN’T HEAR YOU! WAIT A MOMENT!”

This was accompanied by very loud thumping and shouting, right before a young man fell down the stairs and landed right before the three, groaning in pain but apparently being used to it, since the other male, McJones, didn’t even flinch and merely rolled his eyes before bending down and helping the young male up.

The first thing Kyoko noticed about him was, that he was big. He had Byakuya’s size, maybe even a bit bigger and it looked amusing when McJones and Dean were standing next to each other. He had brown hair with a side of red, it looked like dying leaves in autumn and he had lovely brown eyes that were framed by nerd-glasses with thick rims. He wore a shirt with some anime-motive on it and some terrible knee-long khaki-pants and long white socks.

McJones looked at Dean in shock as he asked: “Why are you wearing these horrific trousers?! I gifted them to you as a joke!”

Dean just grinned, revealing his straight and clean teeth as he responded sassily: “Well, the joke is on you, these are first of all very comfy and second of all can I become a walking meme with these, so of course I’m going to wear them! The next time we go on a convention I will dress up as middle-aged man with socks and sandals and these pants and will dab in front of a hot-dog stand!”

McJones looked absolutely horrified at that mental image and immediatly threatened: “I won’t know you anymore if you do this. I will also not allow you in this house anymore.”

Dean pouted and leaned dramatically against McJones as he pretended to die with the smaller male having very big problems with keeping Dean upright as he wailed theatrecally: “But I thought you loved me McJooooones!”

In that moment McJones couldnt keep Dean upright anymore, causing the blonde to fall down with Dean landing on top of him and McJones mood falling down with him as he tapped against the floor with his fingers and growled: “No, you just assumed that. And if you want to live to your next birthday, I would suggest you GETTING OFF OF ME!”

Dean yelped at McJones harsh reaction and immediatly jumped off the smaller male and quickly lifted him up, helping him getting the wrinkles out of his outfit before McJones took some very deep breaths and then turned towards the stunned Kyoko and Byakuya, asking: “How about we now serve the tea and make dinner while Dean takes care of the dogs and cats?”

————————

“And there we go! As good as new!” Exclaimed Sonia as she put a bandaid on Gundhams cheek where a nasty bruise had formed due to the fight he had with Jared.

The breeder nodded, seemingly satisfied with the result once he looked at himself in the mirror. He didn’t look too bad. Nothing got broken or terrible bruised during the fight, but Jared still punched him colourful, which impressed Gundham.

After he regarded himself in the mirror he got up from his current place, the inside of Jared’s tent, with Kazuichi drinking lots of water to prevent collapsing again and Sonia stuffing the first-aid-supplies away. She only knew the basics of first-aid, but so far it has been enough, so that was good.

“Thank you princess of darkness. If you would excuse me now, there is some unfinished business I need to take care of.”

Sonia only nodded with a small but worried smile, settling down and relaxing a little bit. It had been a long walk and the break from everything is going to help her regain her strenght. She wanted to leave the desert before nightfall and she was still planning to do just that.

As it turned out, Jared wasn’t too far off. He was where the two of them fought their battle, dancing on the sand, drawing shapes with his feet while his body moved fluently, like water, his eyes closed, apparently completely emerged in his choreography. His nose was covered by a special bandaid so it can heal properly and won’t leave any ugly marks while his expression seemed to be melancholic. He wasn’t wearing his kimono, he was forced to take it off so Sonia could take care of him, instead he was just wearing silky black pants and socks, his whole upper body completely bandanged.

Jared made a spin, his foot dragging across the sand, drawing yet another shape Gundham wasn’t able to decipher. What was he doing? Was he doing it just for fun or did it have a special meaning?

Jared stopped in a pose, his back towards Gundham, as he asked and therefore startled the breeder: “Do you fear the truth Gundham?”

The breeder didn’t expect Jared to talk to him. He didn’t even know that Jared noticed him, he thought he could watch Jared’s fluent movements a little bit longer, read in his expression, read in the way his body never makes hacked movements, even in battle he is always fluent and elegant.

Jared turned around, an empty smile on his face, his eyes as dead as the tattooed butterfly on his head when he said: “Because I sure do.”

Gundham looked up, how the hot sun highlighted Jared’s handsome features and sharp face, before shaking his head: “The truth is the truth. And as painful as it might be, you always need to know.”

Jared’s smile widened a bit but his eyes were still empty and dead as he retorted: “That wasn’t my question.”

Gundham flinched slightly at that, feeling like he got caught red-handed, or more like caught trying to avoid the question. Gundham made a dismissive noise as he explained: “It can be very painful to-”

“Not my question.”

Jared picked his dancing back up at this point, even though he was much slower this time, probably so he could keep an eye on Gundham so it didn’t seem like he was ininterested in the conversation, because he was. He just felt like the conversation wasn’t going anywhere right now.

“Sometimes you don’t want-”

“Not my question.”

Gundham audibly growled as he ran a frustrated hand through his hair and then finally admitted through clenched teeth: “Yes.”

Jared smiled softly as he stopped his dancing again and strode towards Gundham, tilting his head slightly as if trying to calm the breeder as he said: “It’s good that you know. That means you can work towards overcoming that fear. And the same goes for me.”

He looked to the side, at an empty patch of sand, completely untouched, as he continued: “I’m going to miss dancing…”

Gundham followed Jared’s gaze, regarding the sand for a moment, looking Jared in the eye currently way too hard.

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, I’m just trying to come to terms with my future. I’m not going to stand a chance in the tournament, so I’m already mentally preparing myself. My mother is going to get rid of all my hobbies. My DnD book, my dice, my caterpillar farm and my time for dancing. I’m going to miss it…”

Gundham raised an eyebrow as he looked back at Jared who had a faraway expression on his face, probably thinking about all the things he would have to live without in the future.

“What. Are you talking about? Do you really think it’s over just because you lost one little fight against me?”

Jared still didn’t look at Gundham when he answered: “If I can’t beat you in a friendly battle, how am I supposed to stand a chance in a tournament? I wasn’t able to train much but I thought I had a chance. It turns out I was wrong. And it’s hard to hide when your face is tattooed, I will immediatly stand out.”

“Who said you aren’t going to stand a chance in the tournament? You showed great power and talent. I am forbidding you to give up just because you lost one battle!”

Jared shook his head, his face a little pale when he said: “Someday I will be ready for freedom. But it isn’t going to be anytime soon. And who knows? Maybe I will get used to the cage.”

Gundham made an amused sound as he stepped closer and put a hand on Jared’s shoulder, who finally snapped his eyes back to Gundham, uncertainty and a strange acceptance shining in them.

“Butterflies aren’t supposed to be kept in jars.” Was the only thing Gundham said, but it left an impact on Jared, who looked at the breeder in complete surprise for a moment, apparrently thinking about what to answer but instead deciding on keeping quiet for the moment. Gundham looked back to the direction where the tent was, Sonia and Kazuichi currently inside and resting a bit, preparing themselves to continue the journey. They were close to leaving the desert and then it wouldn’t be far until they reached Blesville, the place Jared was headed too for the tournament.

“Come with us. Travel with us to Blesville. I think you are in need of some company so the evil thoughts don’t feast on your sanity.”

For a moment, a very brief one, Gundham saw the despair shining in Jared’s eyes, the poor boy had been infected by years of abuse and pressure, the despair already deeply rooted with his hopes and dreams. He wanted to help him, which was also the reason he wanted to take Jared with them.

The dancer sniffled, his eyes glued to the ground when he said: “I- I’m just…. scared. Scared of what’s going to h-happen…”

Gundham nodded slightly. He could understand Jared’s fear, he was feeling it aswell…. Because he actually knew that a giant raider was heading for Blesville and would destroy everything if it would get the holy artifact into it’s paws… then there wouldn’t be a future for Jared, no chance to escape the past… because everything would die…

“You know what helps me to keep the evil thoughts at bay?”

This seemed to kindle Jared’s interest as he looked up, curiosity on his face, his eyes going even rounder when Gundham lifted his purple scarf a little bit and pushed one of the devas away to show Jared the necklace he was wearing underneath the scarf, a beautiful purple gem reflecting the light of the slowly setting sun.

“This is my blessed necklace, gifted to me by the angel who gave birth to me. It keeps me pure and chases the corruption away. And so far it has never failed me.”

He looked back up at Jared when he explained: “I would give mine to you, but it is very important, not because many memories are connected to this stone, but it isn’t hard to find your own blessed necklace. Do you have anything that a person dear to you gifted you?”

Jared thought about it for a moment, fiddling with nothing in particular because his D20 was in his Kimono, when he answered: “Not on my person, no. But I know somethinng.”

Gundham was quick to explain: “Sometimes the mere thought of a dear person can keep evil thoughts at bay. It is no cure, but it slows the corruption down. Don’t give up. It is too soon for that. I want to see you fight and I want to see you win.”

Jared smiled, before simply saying “Thanks…” Before walking off, probably to pack his stuff to travel alongside them, to reach Blesville together, so Jared could fulfill his dreams and gain his freedom, just like he was hoping to. Gundham would make sure of that.

Said breeder had one more question though. “What were you drawing in the sand?”

Jared stopped his walking as Gundham continued: “The way you moved… you didn’t just draw shapes right? You drew a big picture, didn’t you? What was it?”

Gundham couldn’t see it, but Jared was smiling as he responded: “A butterfly, how it is meant to be.” Before continuing to walk.

Gundham waited for a few seconds, thinking, contemplating, before also smiling and following Jared to pack his own stuff up. He wanted to get out of the desert, it was too hot for his dark Devas of destruction. But that was the magic of travelling, they could go wherever they want.

Because they were just what the butterfly was. Meant to be.

Free.


	13. Arriving

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New Characters, new encounter, it's slowly starting to get exciting. Let me know if you like it, it will keep me motivated, I can use ALL the motivation really...

“So you are a scientist that is studying the behahiour and powers of raiders and how they affect human souls?” Kyoko asked, very intrigued about the small blonde that was currently waiting for the kettle to whistle so he could prepare tea, loud yelling outside audible from Dean and Byakuya who were given the task of taking the dogs out and getting the mugs back in. The results were semi-successful so far.

McJones rightened his glasses as he introduced himself: “Stewart ‘McJones’ Hargrave, it is nice to make your aqquaintance.” Kyoko nodded as she responded as casually as possible with: “Kyoko Kirigiri. Nice to meet you.”

She dodged the gaze of the scientist in that moment, so she didn’t see how McJones gaze shifted at the mention of her name and how he looked at her for only a second before his eyes were back on the tea, preparing two wooden bowls, because there weren’t any mugs in the cupboards, go figure.

Kyoko casted a glance outside, just to see Bykuya sprinting past it with Dean hot on his heels and three big dogs chasing them with loud barking, causing McJones to roll his eyes as he mused: “I told Dean we need to discipline the dogs more, but he didn’t listen to me. That’s what he’s best at.”

“Training dogs?”

“Not listening.”

Kyoko hummed and looked back outside, the ticking of the nearby clock and McJones’ work in the kitchen causing a relaxed atmosphere. Sadly, it couldn’t stay like this, the detective had some questions that the scientist might be able to answer her. “If you are specialised in raiders and their powers, maybe you could help us with a case we are currently working on.”

McJones gaze casted to the detective again, studying her features for a while, before he looked away, focusing on the kettle when he asked as calm as possible: “Is this about the giant raider heading for Blesville?”

Kyoko’s gaze snapped up, eyes widened, her muscles immediatly tensing up as her eyebrows narrowed, suspicion immediatly raising: “How do you know?”

The scientist finally got the water and put the leaves in combination with the water in the different bowls, creating a heavenly and calming scent that helped Kyoko keep a level head in this serious situation. McJones strode over to her and gave her one of the bowls before sitting down across from her, looking in the green-ish liquid and studying his own reflection, not letting it bother him that the steam was fogging up his glasses.

“I can sense it.” He answered, plain and simple, before looking up again and continuing: “Also it’s not like you kept it a big secret. It’s not exactly easy to hide such a big raider, you know?”

Kyoko nodded at that, looking into her own bowl with the tea, thinking about her next words, this man might be able to give her the informations she needs about the raider, so she had to think about what questions to ask, before looking up and locking eyes with the blonde, asking: “Why is the raider heading for Blesville. What’s it’s goal there? It’s far away from other towns or villages and not too many people live there. What could it want there?”

McJones rightened his glasses once again as he explained: “It’s actually quite easy. As far as my researches go, Blesville has a holy artifact that allows fallen holy creatures to get it’s god-like powers back. I’m assuming the raider used to be a holy creature but got banned from heaven, so now it heads for the holy artifact, most likely for revenge and to wreck havoc.”

Of course... It was so simple, why didn’t she think about it sooner? Makoto even showed her the temple and told her about the holy artifact in there!

“We can’t let it get to Blesville.... once it breaches the borders no one can stop it anymore...”

The words left Kyoko’s mouth without her thinking too much, but McJones nodded nontheless. “It is dangerous indeed. I hope you have at least some strong fighters stationed over there. A Dojo is in the village, is it not?”

Kyoko bit her lip as she explained: “5 fighters, two of them soulless.”

McJones picked his bowl up and shrugged as he said: “I guess we will all die then. Better drink it while it’s still hot then.” He then took a sip to emphasize his point.

Kyoko rose from her chair as she then explained: “We need to get to Blesville as quick as possible. The tournament is going to be there soon, so some strong fighters should alread be there! We need to be back in Blesville before it is, we can’t lose any more time!”

McJones set his bowl down, a serious expression on his face. “Then I hope you have rested enough.” Thumps were audible, like steps, in a rhytmic pattern, thump, thump, thump, the liquid in the bowls indicating that something big seemed to get closer and the screaming of Dean outside emphasized it even more.

“OH WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?! MCJONES, WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!”

McJones also got up from his chair, looking one more time at Kyoko as he emphasized: “Because it’s already here.” Before turning around to leave the kitchen and go in the garden to see for himself, Kyoko following close after him, not trusting her eyes when she laid eyes on the giant creature. It looked bigger than before, it’s fur now messy and knotted, it’s eyes red and wide. Compared to what Bykuya and Kyoko had seen, this version looked like it just survived a war.

Dean looked back at the both of them, Byakuyas gaze fixed on the giant monster, not believing what he was seeing, even though he already saw it.

“McJones! WHAT IS THAT?! WHAT is going on??!”

The blonde kept calm, looked up at the rabbit that would walk right through their house when heading for Blesville, it’s direction clear but it’s eyes wild and constantly moving, an ugly sound that almost sounded like laughing audible from it’s throat. What a disgusting creature. It would destroy their hourse if it continued it’s journey like this.

McJones eyes narrowed, and then he ran. he was fast when he jumped over the fence and sprinted down the path heading for the rabbit, Dean way to late with screaming for McJones to get back, that it was suicide, that he shouldn’t confront that creature.

“Don’t worry Dean, it’s peaceful! The last time we met it, it didn’t try to hurt us in any way, even though we clearly attacked it. It just blocked our attacks and moved on.”

Dean didn’t look convinced at all, the rabbit was so close, just a few feet away from the house, apparently ready to just step over it, but McJones was probably worried it would destroy the house and will try to direct it in a different direction. He jumped and climbed up the beasts leg in a matter of seconds, he appeared to be very skilled at climbing but the creature noticed him, of course and picked him up, the creature closing his fist around him, so only his upper body and head could move in any way, even though his arms were trapped.

The creature raised the scientist to it’s face, their eyes locking. McJones froze, his struggling stopping when he looked into the face of the creature. It didn’t look peaceful, not how Kyoko said it would look at all.... it looked like it might just kill him, it looked ready for murder without feeling any regret, why did it look so terrifying?! McJones couldn’t move, he was trapped, so he did the only thing he could think about doing.

He activated the power of his soul, the energy going through him and revealing sharp teeth as be bend forward and bit into the paw of the rabbit, who screeched in anger and threw McJones in the air to get rid of him, where the scientist was no floating helplessly, unable to fly or get himself in any way to safety.

His eyes widened when he saw the creature taking a step towards him to most likely hit him, causing him to smile because now it won’t destroy the house when it walks past them, so McJones rolled himself into a tight ball and protects himself with the energy of his soul, hoping to all the holy souls in heaven that he will only bruise after this attack.

The raider reached out and slammed McJoned to the ground like a baseball, he landed againsr a tree in their garden, causing the tree to immediatly fall from the sheer force McJones got slammed into it.

“MCJONES!” Screamed Dean as he headed for the injured professor, who was now laying in the grass, unconcious, slight burns visible from the sheer speed he got slammed down, with Kyoko and Byakuya watching in shock.

Dean turned around, an angry expression on his face which lost it’s intimidation when he was carrying McJones Bridal style. “‘Peaceful’, huh?!”

“We didn’t know. It WAS peaceful when we encountered it.”

“Well, now it fucking isn’t. And you guys better hurry the fuck up when you want to reach your destination before it does!”

Kyoko only nodded at that while Byakuya was trying to contact the organization to get someone to pick themup and drive them to Blesville, so they could reach the place A LOT faster.

The thumping got louder when the rabbit walked past the house, but it destroyed nothing thankfully.

Kyoko looked at the raider for a few more moments before concluding: “You’re right, we can’t stay here any longer and we can’t wait for McJones to wake up, I’m sorry but it would simplyt take too long...”

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and showed it to Dean. “Could you at least save the numbers? Just in case McJones can give us more information?”

“I sure fucking can.” Answers Dean as he looked at Byakuya and said: “Hey, hold this for a moment.” Before throwing McJones into Byakuya’s unexpecting arms who made a surprised noise and even dropped his phone to catch the scientist.

Kyoko quickly picked up the phone, only to hear that no one picked up yet, so she hung up and stuffed it into Byakuyas bag. The organization was apparently too busy to help them, not a problem. They would just fly for the rest of the way, Kyoko got enough rest to fly for a pretty long time, so it should all be good and fast.

Dean saved Kyokos Number in his phone and put his and McJones numbers in hers before handing here the phone back.

“...Good luck. Don’t get killed by the raider.... I’m rooting for you!”

Kyoko smiled when she answred: “Don’t worry, we won’t.”

\-------------------------

“We made it to Blesville! Finally!”

Kazuichi couldn’t contain his excitement when they finally breached the desert and after another hour of walking they finally reached the village they were headed for. It was such a long journey, but it was worth it, the village was beautiful.

“Look at everyone!” Exclaimed Jared, who observed the people buzzing around, shopping to get ready for dinner or just bustling around like busy bees. Jared was enjoying the atmosphere, it seemed to casual and relaxed. And Sonia was just as happy as him:

“You are right! So many people who are just living their lives! How lovely!”

None of them were particularly used to the scene, with Jared staying inside and training the whole day and Sonia being a princess, but both of them couldn’t avert their eyes when they saw everything, the fresh scent of herbs and apples was relaxing and both of them were contemplating to just run off and explore.

“Jared, don’t forget to keep the hood on all the time man. You will be immediatly recognized if someone sees your face!”

Jared looked at Kazuichi for a moment, his excitement dying down in an instant at the not as nice truth and he quickly pulled the hood he was wearing more over his head so it would completely hide the butterfly. “I was planning on buying a mask for that, but for now the hood will have to do...” He was muttering, his gaze casted to the ground.

Kazuichi pulled his eyebrows together immediatly feeling guilty for reminding Jared, even though he was right and meant well: “Hey, I didn’t mean it like that man! Have a bit of fun here before the tournament starts! You deserve it! Go find a friend and explore the village together!”

It was hard to see, but the dancer actually blushed underneath the protection of the hood, his face turning away so the other three couldn’t see it very well. “About that....” He began quietly, a smile forming on his face which lit up like a christmas-tree when he heard a deep and smooth voice calling out to him:

“Jared?! Is that you?”

The group of four turned around to see a tall and muscular man heading theor way, his eyes a lovely blue and his hair short and brown. He was wearing a white apron with many paint-splotches scattered across and a long-sleeved blue shirt underneath. The brown pants and boots were apparently just thrown on for going outside. On his sharp face were some paint splatters and he looked a little worried, but otherwise fine.

But Jared couldn’t be more happier to see him. “Shane!” He exclaimed, smiling brightly and running towards him to give him a hug, which the painter returned with a slightly nervous expression.

Sonia’s eyes lit up as she saw the public display of affection while Kazuichi tilted his head slightly and Gundham watched with a neutral expression.

The dancer turned around to face the other three, smiling brightly under his hood when he told them: “Thank you so much for escorting me. I wouldn’t have made it as quickly without you! I probably would have gotten lost in there!”

He giggled, before wincing and reaching a hand up to touch his nose, what Shane immediatly caught on as he spun Jared around and squatted a little bit down to have a better look on the dancer’s face: “What happened to your nose?”

“It was a training-fight, nothing too special. I lost a bit of control, so I got some sense punched back into me.”

Shane didn’t seem to agree with the way Jared said that like it was okay to just up and break someones nose when they step out of line, but if Jared caught on, he didn’t adress it any further and turned around to his three new friends again, smiling.

Gundham spoke up for the first time as he asked: “Will you be alright?”

Jared’s smile turned soft, more genuine, as he comforted: “I will be. I will train for the tournament and break free from my duties.” He grasped Shane’s hand and squeeezed it slightly as he continued: “This guy will make sure to help me! Right Shane?”

The painter tried very hard to hide his smile and even fake-coughed, but he didn’t object, so Jared took it as a yes, before looking directly at Gundham and saying: “And... I will always help you when you need me. Whenever the situation seems to be dire, I will be there.... and that’s a promise.”

Gundham smirked and reached a hand out for Jared to take, the two of them squeezing the life out of each others hands while Gundham said, his voice a little strained: “I will make sure to keep you by that promise butterfly-dancer.”

“Is that supposed to be a challenge?” Asked Jared, a cocky undertone in his voice and one of his eyebrows raising.

“We will see if it ever comes to that.” The other simply answered, releasing Jared’s hand and letting the two go their way, Jared occasionally glancing backwards and waving with Sonia waving back enthusiastically.

Only when Jared and Shane were completely out of sight did Sonia turn to the others and ask: “Alright, we were supposed to go to Hope’s Peak Dojo, did we not? Where do we have to go?”

Gundham rose his noise and sniffed the air slightly before shaking his head slightly: “The scents are mingling, I can’t tell where we have to go.”

Kazuichi looked at the two of them, exasperated, before suggesting: “Or we could behave like normal people for once and, I dunno, ASK somebody?”

Gundham turned his head and looked Kazuichi straight in the eye when he told him: “Sounds stressful.”

“I honestly can’t believe you!” 

\------------------------

A train was heading past, the speed mediocre for a train, but the terrain was rather dangerous to just speed across. Many fighters sat inside, ready for the tournament in a couple weeks, chatting animatedly, knowing it will take some time to reach blesville. The train stopped in a village near Blesville but it was still at least a day or two of walking before they would reach the village.

Not for the two sitting in the far back, in the wagon with hay, not meant for people. The truth was just, that the ticket was rather expensive, and the two hoped to earn a little bit of money in the tournament and to show of their abilities of working as partners.

One of them was currently sitting on the edge of the wagon, legs dangling down, enjoying the sun shining on his pale skin, enjoying it to just be lazy for once, to allow the stress to chill out in the back of his mind and enjoy the companie of his friend without any worries, a cigarette in his mouth, even though he wasn’t allowed to smoke.

Ryoma Hoshi leaned slightly back and sighed, tapping his cig so the ash would fall out of the train, inhaling the smoke and allowing it to linger in his lung for a moment before puffing it out int intervals, almost like someone tried to communicate with smoke signs. It had no special purpose that he did it like that. He was merely messing around.

He looked up, his eyebrows narrowing as he threw the cig away, saying in his deep voice. “Look over there.”

When he heard the steps of his friend coming closer he continued: “Big Bunny.”

Ryoma heard an excited gasp as he exclaimed: “Ohhhhh! Bunny looks so fluffy! Gonta want to pet it!”

Ryoma tilted his head slightly as he squinted at the apparently aggresive creature, his suspicion confirming when he saw how it seemed to punch something smaller, maybe an animal, maybe a person. “I don’t think you can pet it big guy. It seems to be a raider and agressive.”

Gonta Gokuhara, hobby enthomologist, pouted at that, exclaiming: “Aww, too bad. Well, at least Gonta still has Ladybug and Ladybug will always let Gonta pet it!”

Ryoma bit his tongue so he wouldn’t tell Gonta ‘As long as you don’t squish it again’, remembering the hour Gonta cried after that remark. They couldn’t be as loud here on the train, it wasn’t exactly legal to travel like this, but the two of them had no choice. It was always like that for them, they couldnt afford the train tickets, they needed the money for other things. Good thing that Ryoma was always good in sneaking them on trains. It made travelling less tiring.

“Does Hoshi think we will be good in tournament?”

Ryoma chuckled and pulled a gum-cigarette out. Sometimes he smoked but sometimes he just enjoyed messing with people and just using a gum cigarette. “I’m not concerned about the tournament. I’m more worried about that raider that seems to be heading the same direction as we do.”

Gonta looked at the raider that moved along it’s route. Ryoma was right, it was walking the same direction the train was heading towards, even though the creature was mighty slow, probably saving it’s powers for later or something.

“Does Hoshi think we have to fight bunny later?”

Ryoma leaned back again, munching on the gum as he closed his eyes to get the bunny out of his sight for a moment, before merely mumbling: “Who knows.”


End file.
